Bye-bye, Lala: Apple-owned streaming service to shut down
It's a long-familiar story: innovative start-up gains traction, gets major search deal, earns attention from bigger companies, is gobbled up... and then takes down the primary service that got it so much buzz in the first place. Google acquisitions Etherpad and Jotspot, welcome your new club member from the Apple side: Lala is shutting down its streaming and music purchase operation on May 31.
Lala's site notes that users "will be able to access and play all music in your Lala collection through May 31, 2010. Any mp3 songs purchased and downloaded from Lala will continue to play as part of your local music library. You can continue to purchase mp3 songs through May 31st using your wallet balance or other payment methods." No new purchases can be made at this point and the service is no longer accepting signups. Outstanding credit balances on the site will be transferred to iTunes store credit, and loyal users are due a bonus: "In appreciation of your support, you will receive a credit in the amount of your Lala web song purchases for use on Apple's iTunes Store." How thoughtful.
As we bid farewell to the Lala of yesterday, what's coming for the streaming-enabled iTunes of tomorrow? Check out our past Lala posts for the rest of the story.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
[H/T to Ars Technica]
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Source: http://lala.com/
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It's a long-familiar story: innovative start-up gains traction, gets major search deal, earns attention from bigger companies, is gobbled...
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My concern is that if Apple were going to replace Lala.com why would it offer credit to existing Lala.com customers? Why couldn't they wait to close Lala.com until they announce what their plans are to replace it. If they don't replace it, i would call that an evil take over by Apple.
May 01 2010 at 6:56 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyCool online music player. Alternative to Lala or grooveshark. Over 8 million songs streaming all free. You can create your own play-list and share it with friends. Fully integrated with Facebook. http://www.myfriendsandmusic.com
May 01 2010 at 5:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyCool online music player. Alternative to Lala or grooveshark. Over 8 million songs streaming all free. You can create your own play-list and share it with friends. Fully integrated with Facebook. http://www.myfriendsandmusic.com
May 01 2010 at 5:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyQuestion--is there an email address I can contact Apple at? I want to give them a piece of my mind. It's not that I actually think it will change anything, but they should know what their customers think. Their website only has specific support channels for products and stuff like that, so I'm trying to find a general email address.
May 01 2010 at 1:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyTry Groveshark.. www.groveshark.com
It's FREE and GREAT!!
I am very excited about this change! I am wondering how the new price idea is going to work!
If they make itunes.com into what lala.com used to be, I'd be quite happy! :)
April 30 2010 at 3:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI kind of expected this, but I'm still kind of mad about it. Lala is great and I use it all the time. It was a great alternative to buying from itunes. I'll have to switch to the Ubuntu store and Grooveshark. Apple becomes less likely to get money from me daily.
April 30 2010 at 3:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI use to ditch Apple everytime I talked about tech but they are awesome.... where would music be anyways without Apple?? Givem a try and if you have already give them another...
Whatever they do with Lala its not going to disappoint. Lets still remember that Apple has there engineering team and there not going to lose them. Thats what they got them for!
Naturally, I just finished uploading my library last night.
April 30 2010 at 3:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIf you'd like to see Lala (or at least some version of it) stick around, get involved on the Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dont-touch-my-Lala/113264038714598
April 30 2010 at 2:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyA Facebook group? Apple doesn't stand a chance! Way to force their hand!
April 30 2010 at 2:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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