Music startup imeem is a great way to stream some of my favorite artists online, but the company has had trouble paying its bills. It’s raised more money to help it do so, I’ve confirmed with a source close to the company, following up on an earlier report by CNET — and Imeem is still looking to raise more.

Making a music startup profitable can be a matter of negotiating streaming music licensing fees with major record labels. They charge per song, with exact terms being based on the contracts. Music startups such as iLike, which stream snippets of songs but not full tracks, don’t have to deal the same overhead (iLike told us earlier this year that it’s been cash-flow positive since December).

San Francisco-based Imeem has recently been dogged by music industry rumors about its finances. In late March, it saw some of its management depart — from what I heard at the time, it wasn’t profitable, but it did have some interesting revenue streams. While its core business has been in advertising, it has seen growth in music downloads, concert ticket sales and ringtone.

Download revenue could get a boost, TechCrunch hears today, because the company is moving away from selling songs through Amazon and Apple’s iTunes to its own service, Snocap. MediaMemo reported in late March saying that imeem had successfully renegotiated down some streaming contracts, so that cost could be dropping, too.

At this point, my source says that ringtones are an especially promising-looking form of non-advertising revenue. The company is looking to push sales in western Europe and southeast Asia, two regions where people use Imeem, where most people have mobile phones, and have proven to want to pay for ringtones.

[Street musician photo via Rustic Photos.]

Read the original article at Venture Beat:
Imeem gets some funding, looking for more