MeeMix keeps plugging along on its journey to attract more users to its personalized Internet radio service. Today the company is adding a new feature which complements users’ radio stations with “twin” music video channels.

While Last.fm introduced video recommendations exactly a year ago, MeeMix thinks this will help make its service more attractive. The company has always felt its taste prediction technology is not strictly limited to audio, so from its perspective offering taste predictions for video is somewhat of a logical next step.

Enabling MeeMix’s video mode requires no setup at all. The feature leans on the taste selections existing users have already made when setting up their existing radio stations (i.e., music genres, artists and songs). Relevant music videos are then fetched from YouTube. Editing radio stations, for example adding a new artist, impacts the video selection immediately.

MeeMix fetches a wide range of videos—from official music videos, to very amateur material. Some users will find this quite entertaining. I for example had to stop writing this post mid-way to enjoy a vintage video of John Coltrane playing Naima.

The video sound quality falls below the audio stations’ 128 Kbps and that MeeMix cannot perform volume leveling on the YouTube videos.

MeeMix is trying to keep users engaged while circumventing licensing issues, royalty fees, and bandwidth costs. Since all the videos are streamed from YouTube, it is Google’s problem if any copyright issues arise. (This is a similar approach taken by music search engine Songza, which streams the audio from YouTube videos to create music playlists).

Will the video channels help MeeMix attract more users, or is it too much a a MeeToo service?

This post was originally posted on TechCrunch.com where I cover the Israeli startup scene.

MeeMix is looking for an internet marketing professional.

If you are one or know a person with relevant qualifications let them know at: jobs@meemix.com

The position is full time in Tel Aviv.

Qualifications:

• English as a mother tongue
• Experience with SMO methodologies and strategies
• Experience with SMM and SEM
• Some experience with editing and creative/marketing writing
• Experience with account management, media buying, inventory sales
• Project Management

Advantage:

• Creativity
• Internet savants/power user
• High analytic abilities
• Experience with SEO
• Experience in the music industry
• Previous experience in internet companies

Tel Aviv, Israel based MeeMix, which we first covered in August, is kicking-off the New Year by moving their taste-predicting Internet radio service from closed to open Beta.Internet radio is already a very crowded space dominated by entrenched startups like Last.fm and Pandora. Smaller players and recent entrants such as SpiralFrog, Jango and Slacker are not increasing the breathing room. MeeMix wants its share of the pie, too, and is keeping its crosshairs focused on the U.S. market and its dominant revenue potential.

MeeMix’s public beta launch is marked by the addition of new features:

• Meeps: Comment-based conversations users can have regarding a song, album or artist.
• Station Home: Every MeeMix station now has a dedicated page allowing users to interact in its context and shape its playlist.
• Mee Feeds: This is basically MeeMix’s version of Facebook’s News Feed. The feed indicates songs favorited, stations rated, friends added, etc.
• Mee Journey: Users can see other members’ public log or “journey” of actions in MeeMix.
• Station Gift: Users can now send other members a station as a gift. The station is then the “property” of the recipient who can customize it without affecting the original station.
• Twitter Integration: Users can update their Twitter accounts with songs they’ve listened to, their favorite stations, etc.

MeeMix claims to have doubled its music catalog, but a search for my personal favorites ‘John Coltrane’ and ‘Miles Davis’ came-up empty. The same searches on Jango and Slacker both came-up positive.

I would like to have seen the addition of “genre” to the channel creation wizard which is still limited to artist and song. A widgetized player also would have been a welcome addition, especially the desktop kind.

In my original post, I hypothesized that licensing its engine could become MeeMix’s core business. Looks like this might not be far fetched as the company says they have been approached by a mobile operator for the purpose of powering a taste-based cellular music streaming service. The company has also shared with me some interesting offline deals on the horizon that should keep MeeMix’s potential on a positive note for 2008. We’ll post another update soon. In the meantime, let us know how you think MeeMix compares to the competition.

This post was originally posted on TechCrunch.com where I cover the Israeli startup scene.