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email this storyApple to Shut Lala Down May 31st
Posted by: Spencer // May 03 2010
A few months ago, I recommended Lala and then reported on Lala's sale to Apple. Obviously my intense following of Lala meant their days were numbered. On Friday Apple announced it was pulling the plug on the cloud-based music service. The general assumption is that this is the first shoe to drop in Apple’s expected foray into cloud-based music. With iPhone OS 4 and a new iPod coming with the next few months, we shouldn’t have to wait too long for that other shoe.
For those unfamiliar with cloud-based computing, essentially it means that instead of storing information on a hard-drive, your computer or an MP3 player, you’d store that information on a server that you’d connect to via the Internet. Those servers where your data lives are called “the cloud.” The coolest part of this set-up is that it essentially gives you unlimited capacity; instead of being limited to a few gigabytes on your iPhone, you can access your entire collection at any time. This is an idea that probably leaves AT&T shitting themselves. They already have bandwidth issues without this type of access; this would undoubtedly make things worse for them in the short run.
So what is Apple planning? Well, I don’t think they spent $80 million acquiring Lala just to get rid of them. I believe that the next version of iTunes will have some sort of streaming capability – whether it is via the cloud or simply over Wi-Fi – it has to be coming. The one hiccup in this plan would be the major labels. The greedy bastards want us to pay more for this type of access. They’ve always had it in their head that if you want to listen to Lady Gaga on three devices - say in your car, at home, and at the gym – that you should have to purchase three separate versions of those works. Of course no one does this, but cloud computing is what the RIAA has been scared of the whole time.
In the short-run, Lala will shut down on May 31st. If you’ve purchased web access to songs, you’ll get a credit for what you spent on iTunes. This doesn’t amount to much though since one web album pretty much gets you one song on iTunes. For the next month there will be no sharing of songs from Lala to Facebook or Twitter – the big feature I’ll miss. After May 31, account holders will not have access to web albums they've purchased or music they've uploaded.
Sad to see a great service go, but hopefully this is the start of great stuff for iTunes. I'm going to have to try Rhapsody or iLike. Or maybe wait for Spotify to come to the U.S. If you have any suggestions for a decent Lala replacement, please put those in the comments section here or on our Facebook page along with your reasons for recommending the service.
More info on Lala closing from Techcrunch.
