Universal Music Group struck a deal with the social networking Web site imeem on Monday to offer its music library to site members. While they will be able to stream Universal’s music and videos, site members won’t be able to download any songs to their computer, and they will also have to deal with the included advertisements that pay for the content they use.

UMG chairman and CEO Doug Morris commented "imeem has developed an innovative way to make our artists’ music a central part of the social networking experience. More importantly, they’ve done so the right way -- by working with UMG to provide an exciting musical experience for consumers, while ensuring that our artists are fairly compensated for the use of their works."

UMG failed to renew its annual contract with Apple’s iTunes Store in July and instead chose to move to a month-by-month deal. The record label was hoping to take back some of the distribution control it thought Apple has stolen from the music industry.

Many record labels have been pushing for a sliding price scale where they could charge more for popular songs, along with music subscription services -- a popular idea among the record labels, but not so much with consumers.

The deal with imeem assumes that Web users are willing to listen to music in a style that is similar to traditional commercial radio with advertisements included with artist tracks. What consumers have clearly shown, however, is that they want to purchase and own their music, which has helped drive Apple’s iTunes Store up to the third largest music reseller behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy.