Ever since purchasing an iPhone many moons ago, I was looking for a way to upload my music to “the cloud” (which is geek speak for uploading files on someone else’s server), without having to go through Mobile Me (which may not be worth the expense).

I was hoping that a service called Lala.com would be able to back up my music and allow me to stream it to my iPhone, but unfortunately their iPhone app never made it past Steve Job’s inquisition board, leaving music lovers at a loss.

That is until Imeem showed up with their shiny iPhone app.

What I loved

Upon first glance, Imeem appears to be yet another competitor in the iRadio wars raging throughout the App store. Users can with a simple tap listen to popular tunes of the year, or from across the Imeem universe.

Users can also choose to like (or “heart”) a song, or reject it by hitting the “x” (similar to Last.fm). You can also share the song with others (via email) or purchase it from iTunes.

But what makes Imeem stand out from rivals like Pandora (which I frequently listen too) is that you can upload your own music, videos and images from iTunes (or computer), allowing you to backup your media files just in case your iPhone & computer are damaged/stolen.

Another cool feature that set Imeem apart (aside from its storage/backup capabilities) was the ability to listen to your favorite songs again, instead of relying on the “good ol’ AI” to play your song perchance (like in Pandora & Last.fm).

What I hated

While I enjoyed the fact that I could upload my library to Imeem’s servers, I was disappointed that there was no way I could create a playlist with the music I uploaded to Imeem.

This would make the app really shine in my honest opinion, and would (perhaps) help convince more people to test out its service.

Also Imeem’s “Discover” service for music was not that great when compared against Pandora or even Last.fm, although this is probably because I have been using their service for a much shorter time frame (days compared with months on Pandora).

Last but not least, Imeem songs seem to “cut off” near the end randomly, which I found to be quite annoying after you have just discovered an awesome song.

Conclusion

Overall, the Imeem app is pretty good, and since its free users may want to check it out on the App Store.

Hopefully Imeem will consider making the service more social (perhaps by allowing users to share their likes/dislikes via Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed within the app), as well as customize the overall layout of the app with themes (as the grayish-blue background gets old after a while).

Disclosure: Imeem sent me a $25 iTunes gift certificate for installing their app and retweeting a message on Twitter. I probably would have reviewed their app anyways (as I was already looking for something similar on the app store).

Note: Video review will appear later (getting over a small cough–and no its not swine flu/H1N1!)

Update (5/29): Video added (and my cough is going away! Yeah me!

More iGoodness below