Apple Shuts Down LaLa
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by: Guest
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Roughly five months after buying out LaLa, Apple is shutting the system down. Find out why they felt threatened by the cloud-based music site.
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Everyone in the industry saw this one coming. We should not be surprised. Nevertheless, I cannot contain my disappointment that Steve Jobs and Apple are shutting down LaLa, the magical online music system that has kept me entranced with new music for the past six months.
LaLa is (for the next three weeks only) a "cloud based" system. In cloud based computing, a person's data is stored on online servers instead of their own home computers or devices. The technology has been out there for a while, but LaLa took consumer hopes to new levels when it began offering cloud-based music for an almost too-good-too-be-true ten cents a song! How could they do it? Easy. It wasn't the same as buying an MP3 because the customer never actually downloaded the song. He couldn't put it on his iPod or play it from his stereo. He only had access to it when he was connected online to LaLa. For millions of consumers who work on a high speed internet connection, this was a marvelous arrangement.
Not only were the prices astonishingly low, the service was outstanding. On LaLa, a person can sample entire songs instead of just getting a 30 second sample. I did this often over the past six months. Any new artist I would hear about, I would search for and give their CD a listen. After I listened to a track one time, I could only access a 30 second sample from then on, unless I chose to download the mp3 (typically at $1 a song; roughly the same as on iTunes) or by the web version at 10 cents.
When LaLa submitted an iPhone ap last fall, they were proving betting that they could gain steam as a viable alternative to iTunes. Either that, or the programmers knew that they had something to get Apple's attention, and to fetch a good price. Either way, Apple bought them out in December.
This week, the formal announcement finally came. LaLa shuts down on May 31. If you have bought web versions of songs from LaLa, you can use iTunes credit to redeem the same music on iTunes. Unfortunately, you will only be able to get one tenth of that music back with your credit, though. As of now, Apple has no cloud-based system, and even if the rumors that they are developing one are true, you can bet they won't offer songs for 10 cents!
Goodbye, LaLa. It's been fun.
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