Imeem Buys Music Tech Company SnocapImeem Buys Music Tech Company Snocap

Social media network Imeem has acquired Snocap, a digital rights and content management technology company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Imeem boasts more than 24 million visitors and has been ranked by Quantcast as the third-largest social network in the United States. The site already uses Snocap technology to identify tracks that users upload, determine whether content owners allow full streaming, and manage payments to musicians and labels. Artists and labels who allow their music to be streamed share in Imeem's advertising revenue.

Snocap offers content identification technology and a digital registry of more than 7 million songs. The acquisition expands Imeem's offerings of products and services for artists and music labels.

"The Snocap team built a great technology platform that will be useful to Imeem as we continue to grow," Dalton Caldwell, Imeem's founder and CEO, said while announcing the acquisition Monday. "Together we'll build on that work in the coming months, and give labels and independent artists new ways to promote and sell their music through Imeem, MySpace, and anywhere on the Web."

Rusty Rueff, CEO of Snocap, said the two companies already work toward the same goal: allowing artists to promote music in new ways.

Shawn Fanning, Jordan Mendelson, and Ron Conway founded Snocap with backing from WaldenVC, Morgenthaler Ventures, and Court Square Ventures. Snocap's COO, Ali Aydar, who was also an early arrival at Napster, will become Imeem's VP of operations.

Snocap allows more than 110,000 signed and unsigned artists, along with major record labels and independent labels, to sell music on MySpace and Web sites through MyStore. The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Diddy, Nickelback, The Shins, LCD Soundsystem, Lily Allen, Sean Paul, and Corinne Bailey Rae are among Snocap's MyStore users.

The companies said those products and services will still be available and users will not experience changes to their accounts or services. The companies plan to improve the Snocap MyStore later this year.