Can music-oriented social-networking site Imeem get consumers to pay to get music on their cell phones that they could otherwise listen to for free on their PCs? The company, whose ad-funded site has the backing of all four major music labels to let user legally stream songs to listen to, launched an update of their mobile application last week which includes a new feature called MyMusic that lets users with an Android cellphone to access and stream their imeem music library—that is, songs they already own—to their device. What users can’t do is pick their songs on the updated app, rather the application allows them to create customized internet radio stations that plays songs based on their stated preferences with a big buy button placed next to them.

SEE ALSO: iMeem Adds Streaming To Android Mobile App

According to the Nytimes.com’s Bits blog, Imeem is “caught between the storms of a capricious music industry on one side and the hard rocks of the Internet advertising market on the other.” The labels have a list of do’s and don’t for Imeem, one of which includes not allowing streaming on mobile because they believe that users will pay to get songs on their phone. It’s hard after all, to access a pirated track from a file sharing site on mobiles, and some tracks on mobiles are already selling for twice that on computers. But as Bits points out what happens though when mobile phone browsers are able to use Adobe’s Flash plug-in that would allow users to listen to the free songs offered by Imeem and its rivals, Last.FM and MySpace Music? Goodbye, business model. Still, this should give “Imeem a window of time, however short, to make a bit of money selling downloads and keeping the music labels from getting too upset.”