Apple acquires music streaming service Lala

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Sources inside Apple have confirmed that Apple has agreed to buy Lala, an online music streaming service based in Palo Alto, California.



Confirming earlier reports, sources inside Apple have confirmed that it has indeed acquired music streaming service Lala. The specific terms of the deal have not been released as of Friday evening.



According to reports by the New York Times, Lala had actively sought out Apple after Lala executives concluded that prospects for turning a profit in the short term were slim.



Lala allows its users to stream any song in its 8 million strong song library once, with the option for unlimited streaming at 10 cents per track and 79 cents for permanent MP3 download.



This acquisition would allow Apple to integrate full-song streaming into iTunes and opens up possibilities for Pandora-like streaming radio on anything that can run iTunes, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Mac systems.



In October, Lala, along with iLike, entered a partnership with Google to allow users to quickly discover song previews, artist info, pictures, video and more. Currently, Google searches for artists or songs can return a full, streaming, embedded song at the top of results, courtesy of Lala.







According to the AP, Lala founder Bill Nguyen had demonstrated an iPhone app in October which would have allowed users to buy streaming rights to a song for 10 cents each. Using "intelligent caching," it allowed tracks to load in seconds and allowed playback even in areas without cell phone coverage. This app was never released to the public.



Apple has a large war chest of nearly $31.1 billion in cash and investments, giving it the largest net-cash sum of any technology company.

«134

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 72
    Umm.... why not fold this update into the prior thread (let alone the dramatic red font).
  • Reply 2 of 72
    dcj001dcj001 Posts: 301member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Umm.... why not fold this update into the prior thread (let alone the dramatic red font).



    People who say "Umm...." repeatedly when they speak are hard to listen to.



    I assume that, when people say "Umm...." it's not something that is consciously/intentionally said.



    But why do some people type "Umm...." instead of just typing their question or statement?



    I also assume that when someone types "Umm...." it is consciously/intentionally typed.
  • Reply 3 of 72
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DCJ001 View Post


    People who say "Umm...." repeatedly when they speak are hard to listen to.



    I assume that, when people say "Umm...." it's not something that is consciously/intentionally said.



    But why do some people type "Umm...." instead of just typing their question or statement?



    I also assume that when someone types "Umm...." it is consciously/intentionally typed.





    I intentionally say OR type Umm, before I say OR write something sarcastic



    Doh !
  • Reply 4 of 72
    msnlymsnly Posts: 378member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DCJ001 View Post


    People who say "Umm...." repeatedly when they speak are hard to listen to.



    I assume that, when people say "Umm...." it's not something that is consciously/intentionally said.



    But why do some people type "Umm...." instead of just typing their question or statement?



    I also assume that when someone types "Umm...." it is consciously/intentionally typed.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BuffyzDead View Post


    I intentionally say OR type Umm, before I say OR write something sarcastic



    Doh !



    Umm... I believe we should move on gentleman.





    I'm interested to see what Apple does with this move. I personally won't pay a subscription for music but I'm hoping they have better plans.
  • Reply 5 of 72
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    10 cents each time I want to stream a song? WTF, why not just rob me. I can go to youtube and stream whatever I want for free. I hope Apple gets rid of the ridiculous 10 cent charge. I currently use last.fm and hearing this I wish apple bought them instead.
  • Reply 6 of 72
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sheff View Post


    10 cents each time I want to stream a song? WTF, why not just rob me. I can go to youtube and stream whatever I want for free. I hope Apple gets rid of the ridiculous 10 cent charge. I currently use last.fm and hearing this I wish apple bought them instead.



    It's not 10 cents EACH time you want to stream the song. It's ten cents once (per song) to be able to stream it as much as you want.
  • Reply 7 of 72
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DCJ001 View Post


    But why do some people type "Umm...." instead of just typing their question or statement?



    Like others have stated, It?s an easy way to convey a derisive tone. I think it?s quite effective, whcih it can be easily abused. \
  • Reply 8 of 72
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Donathius View Post


    It's not 10 cents EACH time you want to stream the song. It's ten cents once (per song) to be able to stream it as much as you want.



    Oh, that is not that bad I guess. So just to clarify this is kinda like me buying this song, but it can only be accessed through the cloud? And if I want to get it to my ipod I pay the 79 cents more, or is it 69 cause I already paid the 10?
  • Reply 9 of 72
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DCJ001 View Post




    I assume that, when people say "Umm...." it's not something that is consciously/intentionally said.



    For people who speak English (There are similar tools in your preferred language language), Umm and Ahh are used to prevent unintentionally relinquishing control of a conversation to another participant.



    In this instant it is a little confusing as it isn't normally written and has no purpose in writing except for simulating a spoken conversation verbatim.



    It's part of the media access control for spoken communication - akin to carrier sensing in ethernet/wifi.



    People who umm and ahh also communicate their message better to their listeners.

    Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-speakers.html
  • Reply 10 of 72
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by retroneo View Post


    For people who speak English (There are similar tools in your preferred language language), Umm and Ahh are used to prevent unintentionally relinquishing control of a conversation to another participant.



    In this instant it is a little confusing as it isn't normally written and has no purpose in writing except for simulating a spoken conversation verbatim.



    It's part of the media access control for spoken communication - akin to carrier sensing in ethernet/wifi.



    People who umm and ahh also communicate their message better to their listeners.

    Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-speakers.html



    "Stay on target!" - from Star Wars A NEW HOPE



    Err, topic!
  • Reply 11 of 72
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    The 10¢ cost per song seems reasonable to me, but hopefully they?ll do a value added service by including this with iTunes Store audio purchases. But Apple is on top so there isn?t much business reason to add this for free. C'est la vie!



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 21-October-2009


    Lala is unveiling the first and only free fully licensed service to instantly provide anywhere Web access to an existing music library such as iTunes. Replacing the outdated approach of uploading MP3 files from a PC, Lala introduces a licensed technology to instantly match songs from consumers? personal music libraries with the Web-based catalog on lala.com.



    I?d really like Lala?s unique aspects added so I hope this isn?t just for the talent. For example, being able to go www.itunes.com, put in my account information and be able to play any of my songs from Apple?s servers to whatever browser I?m using even though my PC with iTunes isn?t being used after my library was updated. This may be how Apple is going to get iTunes to still be relevant on Chrome OS.
  • Reply 12 of 72
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by retroneo View Post


    For people who speak English (There are similar tools in your preferred language language), Umm and Ahh are used to prevent unintentionally relinquishing control of a conversation to another participant.



    In this instant it is a little confusing as it isn't normally written and has no purpose in writing except for simulating a spoken conversation verbatim.



    It's part of the media access control for spoken communication - akin to carrier sensing in ethernet/wifi.



    People who umm and ahh also communicate their message better to their listeners.

    Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-speakers.html



    "Um...", when used in written communication, almost always denotes bemused, slightly comic confusion. Among the various verbal "ums", which can be simply a tick, a pause to gather ones thoughts, a way of prefacing a statement of disagreement, etc., the written "um" would most closely approximate that delivered with a raised eyebrow and would translate roughly as "Hold on there, I'm puzzled by what you mean." Which makes it an economical use of language.
  • Reply 13 of 72
    str1f3str1f3 Posts: 573member
    Ummm?WTF? This about Lala and not about verbeage. This is great as an option to others including myself.



    Apple needs to jump on the subscription bandwagon and the server farm in NC should help. Screw $.10/song and give me a model like the Zune. It may be crap but at least they got that part right.
  • Reply 14 of 72
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by str1f3 View Post


    Ummm?WTF? This about Lala and not about verbeage. This is great as an option to others including myself.




    Yeah. God forbid we talk about "verbeage."
  • Reply 15 of 72
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by addabox View Post


    Yeah. God forbid we talk about "verbeage."



    A big bowl every day keeps me regular. Oh, wait -- that's roughage.
  • Reply 16 of 72
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post


    A big bowl every day keeps me regular. Oh, wait -- that's roughage.



    Indigestible either way.
  • Reply 17 of 72
    From the NY Times...



    "Lala, unlike Apple?s iTunes, lets users play the music they own from the Web ? or in tech industry parlance, from the cloud. If Apple introduces its own cloud-based streaming music service, it would let people skip having to download music they buy or synchronize their music collection between their computers and mobile devices."



    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/te...pple.html?_r=3



    Time will tell.
  • Reply 18 of 72
    pk22901pk22901 Posts: 153member
    - I think this is about Apple turning back Flash.



    - (The Mac version of Flash is terrible. Flash is blocked from the iPhone.)



    - Lala appears to be successfully running a great website on Flash.



    - Apple will buy and convert Lala to HTML5.



    So the question hanging is what other Flash based businesses will they buy?
  • Reply 19 of 72
    chronsterchronster Posts: 1,894member
    What happens to the current LaLa users? Did Apple just swoop in and destroy some competition? Sounds a bit familiar. Who's that company everyone around here finds it so fashionable to slam... Applesoft? No that aint it...
  • Reply 20 of 72
    adamwadamw Posts: 114guest
    Way to go Apple. If you can maintain the LaLa site as it is, and use the engineers for new Apple projects that would be great.
Sign In or Register to comment.