Last Updated: Tuesday, March 11, 2008, 12:05

REM to release album on iLike

REM's new album, Accelerate is set to debut on the social networking application iLike.

The roll-out, the first of its kind for a major act, will allow fans to stream and share Accelerate in its entirety beginning March 24th, a week ahead of the album's April 1st US release date.

"It was one of those ideas that was presented to us, and it seemed like a good one so we ran for it," frontman Michael Stipe told Billboard.com.

He said the way people embrace music "has certainly changed" in the last five or 10 years. "I think you can either go with it or sit back and watch it happen, and I would rather be out on the field than in the bleachers."

Accompanied by a video of the band talking about the album, the iLike launch will make the 11-song set freely available to anyone using iLike.com, Facebook, iTunes or any of the other social networks and sites that offer an iLike application for their platforms.