Seattle, WA and Burbank, CA - Warner Bros. Records’ R.E.M. and leading social music discovery service iLike announced today that Accelerate, the best-selling rock band’s 14th studio album, will stream in its entirety exclusively on iLike and its syndicates beginning March 24th, 2008.

A first for the company, the iLike Worldwide Listening Party will continue through March 26th, six days before the album’s North American release on April 1st, 2008. Additionally, R.E.M. will record an exclusive video message introducing and discussing the album that will be available via iLike for distribution across the Web.

“Collaborating with iLike, and debuting Accelerate across the Web is in keeping with the spirit and immediacy of the album.” says the band’s frontman Michael Stipe. “We wanted to do something superfast and super real. Music, art, and pop culture are about right now, and nothing else matters. Accelerate is our turbo-charged response to the times we live in.”

In addition to being available on iLike’s website (www.ilike.com), the iLike Worldwide Accelerate Listening Party and exclusive R.E.M. video message will debut through the iLike Sidebar desktop plugin for iTunes and Windows Media Player (www.iLike.com/download), as well as across the Web via iLike’s leading applications on Facebook, Bebo, hi5, and for the iPhone. R.E.M. have already been using the iLike Universal Artist Dashboard to post content, reaching their fans across multiple syndication channels via iLike’s “Post Once, Publish Everywhere” platform. The album will also be available for pre-order via iLike’s retail links to iTunes and Amazon.com.

“With 11 songs clocking in at just 34 minutes, Accelerate is intense and relevant, with songs inspired by the WTO riots in Seattle, the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and other topical themes,” said Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike. “We are honored to play a role in helping R.E.M. introduce this album to their fans across the Web. This is our first-ever Worldwide Listening Party and R.E.M. has set a very high bar.”

In many ways, Accelerate marks a break from R.E.M.’s recent albums, 1998’s Up, 2001’s Reveal, and 2004’s Around The Sun - all finely crafted works exploring the textures and possibilities of the recording studio. Accelerate ties together the band’s entire canon as part of the vision for the new album turning old dreams into a new reality.

To listen to R.E.M’s Accelerate and watch the band’s exclusive video message, please visit: www.iLike.com/R.E.M. To learn more about iLike’s multimedia blogging tools and other free services for artists, please visit: www.iLike.com/forartists.

About iLike, inc

iLike is the Web’s leading social music discovery service and the dominant music application on the Facebook®, hi5 and Bebo platforms. With more than 23 million registered users, iLike helps people share music recommendations, playlists, and personalized concert alerts. The iLike Sidebar for iTunes and Windows Media Player suggests new music, creates automatic playlists, and connects people through music. iLike offers musicians and labels a Universal Artist Dashboard from which to reach fans and manage their presence across multiple channels: Facebook, hi5, Bebo, iLike.com, Ask.com, iLike Sidebar plugins for iTunes and Windows Media Player, and iLike’s iPhone application. By leveraging iLike’s “artist-fan graph,” a vast database of connections between consumers and their favorite artists, iLike helps artists reach their fans and cultivate the viral spread of their music. iLike, inc also runs indie music site GarageBand.com.

About R.E.M.
Rock band R.E.M. emerged from the post-punk D.I.Y. scene in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 and has been making their own unique brand of music ever since. R.E.M. has released 13 studio albums, including five with I.R.S. in the ’80s and eight with current label Warner Bros. Records. Among R.E.M.’s achievements are a host of humanitarian awards, three Grammy’s, several No. 1 albums, six Rolling Stone covers, numerous MTV Video Music Awards, and upwards of 100 million records sold, making the band one of the most critically and commercially successful groups of all time.

Throughout their twenty-eight year career, R.E.M. has given consistently to charitable causes, supporting such wide-ranging endeavors as the Boys & Girls Club, school music programs, and local grassroots community organizations to partnering with Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Vote For Change, and Doctors Without Borders. R.E.M. has also supported many organizations dedicated to environmental protection, a just and equitable society, and progressive political causes. Among many others, the group has performed benefit concerts for Moveon.org, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Live 8, Free South Africa, Oxfam, Make Trade Fair, Athens Community Connection, Vote For Change and the Bridge School.

Accelerate, the band’s 14th studio album, will be released on March 31st and April 1st around the world.

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