Well that's that, apparently. Although
this story has evolved quite a bit over the day, according to Peter Kafka over at
All Things Digital, Apple has indeed coughed up the dough for music streaming service Lala. If you believe what you read in the report (and you probably can, Kafka tends to be a straight shooter), Apple's snapping up the company for what will amount to a bargain-basement price... possibly less than $.50 on the dollar. However, Kafka says at least one source claims his valuation of the deal is off, but we'll have to wait for some official word before we know for sure. If this turns out to all be true, the lingering question is still about Apple's reasoning behind the purchase -- is the company after a particular technology, or is there a service in the offing? Hopefully we'll know soon.
Note: If you want a little background on Lala, Ross Rubin has covered the service extensively in
his Switched On column.
posted December 4th 2009 10:54PM
I hope Apple moves to Lala's business model
Wow... Apple buys a company just to copy Microsoft's Zune Pass?
I wonder how Apple's going to make this look like they've invented it?
@geoffreak
that will only happen when lala bought over apple...
@(Unverified)
Not exactly like Zune Pass, nor was Zune Pass even close to being the first music rental service.
"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 Replacing the outdated approach of uploading MP3 files from a PC, Lala introduces a licensed technology to instantly match songs from consumers’ personal music libraries with the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.”
@Vendettx
Ugh why do you exist. . .
@Vendettx "gaycrosoft"....and you're calling him a fanboy..?
i hope a good streaming service comes out of this. or better yet, a subscription service!!
@sharukh007
Why would you want a SUBSCRIPTION service? Internet Radio is free. Keep it that way.
What are you thinking, man?
Seriously, way to cheer for shitty, rip-off, anti-consumer business models.
Were you a big fan of DIVX? Do you lease your car?
Think it through.
@(Unverified)
I'm using Spotify premium right now with my iPod Touch after using Rhapsody with my Creative players for years. The thing is what do you value? I see people with Netflix/Love Film/Blockbuster accounts who have no problem stumping up £10 a month for 3 movies or £2.50 per rental...for what...a 2 and a half hour movie. 2 and half hours entertainment or music I can listen to again and again...albums that will see me through my commute to work, my work out at the gym and while I work in the lab at my job. Now that's worth £9.99 a month to me. When I stop paying I don;t expect to keep my DVD rentals so why do people expect to keep music? We seem to see music as a form of entertainment that should be subject to different rules. I value music more than watching a movie that may or may not suck like I used to with my Love Film account. After sitting through a bad movie I've already paid for I have no recourse...that's it. With Spotify I can just stream/sync another one of the millions of songs I have at my disposal.
There goes my Lala account.
@insky
I know, right? Guess I can move to something like Grooveshark or Spotify.
@insky Yep, and I just found Lala like a month ago... ugg... I was happy when I heard they were submitting an app to Apple... Now, will there still be a streaming music app over wifi (or even 3G) in the future? Plz Apple?
@insky Same thing I was thinking. I wonder how long before the 10 cents per song turns into 50 cents.
@insky
Also,
Holy Crap! When did Microsoft add streaming music from the web for Zune Pass owners? I've been waiting this for forever at work.
Sorry, Lala I didn't really use you much anyways.
Google should have bought them just to screw with Apple.
@(Unverified)
Agreed!
@(Unverified) You should verify your account by logging out and logging back in. We're putting unverified accounts on a "to delete" list!
@Joshua Topolsky
And why would you do that, Joshua? Well, not that it matters; we can't rank you guys anymore anyway. Nice to be able to say anything with zero consequences.
@paul34
Because they want you to verify that the user is still active and to build a better user database. And in regards to not being able to rank an admin/author... it's their site and stupid people say stupid things to authors when they think they can be anonymous and get away with it. If you don't like a particular author... take your viewership somewhere else you tool!
You don't get to up-rank or down-rank an admin on almost ever site out there. Just be happy that you are allowed to rank comments at all.
@Joshua Topolsky Thats a top tip. Thanks for that
@jordanbiffle
Oh, sure delete active, yet unverified accounts.
Meanwhile the site remains full of Javascript errors. The ranking buttons on posts that have ranking buttons don't work half the time. They never work in IE. the Tip us pop-up doesn't work in IE. There is no way to search a page for replies.
As buggy as the comment system was, it has only gotten worse. It is like you guys did next to no testing before you "went live" and now you don't really know what you are doing well enough to actually make things work.
It is an embarrassment.
But we all know it is all those Unverified accounts that are the real problem, right?
@jordanbiffle
That's what I need, an ad between each listen specifically targeted to what music I listen to.
@jordanbiffle
Count one more for the Google position on this... It's been a real surprise.
Apple has enough customers and the ability to deploy a service like this in no time, why buy Lala?
It should be set to having all replies shown as default with an option to collapse them all.
@Ordeith
I know! You'd think Engadget would have tested their site in at least IE8 before launching the new design. Or would have at least fixed it up by now. I can understand not supporting IE7 and lower, but this is IE8!
They should have more to worry about than these unverified accounts.
@Joshua Topolsky
Is there any way to change my username without creating another account?
@paul34 ....what? It's their site. He can enable the ability to always be upranked. What are you anyway, some kind of Internet Tough Guy?
spellcheck fail.... valuation and offing?.......
@sirhancelot
offing |ˈôfi ng; ˈäf-| |ˈɔfɪŋ| |ˈɑfɪŋ| |ˈɒfɪŋ|
noun
the more distant part of the sea in view.
PHRASES
in the offing likely to happen or appear soon : there are several initiatives in the offing.
ORIGIN early 17th cent.: perhaps from off + -ing 1
valuation |ˌvalyoōˈā sh ən|
noun
an estimation of something's worth, esp. one carried out by a professional appraiser : it is wise to obtain an independent valuation.
• the monetary worth of something, esp. as estimated by an appraiser.
@sirhancelot
How con you never have heard the word offing.
@sirhancelot
Spelling Nazi fail.
@sirhancelot
Ellipsis fail!
@(Unverified)
I just failed
@Joshua Topolsky touche...
@sirhancelot
Can I flail to
@Joshua Topolsky
People just want to score points, it's almost like they'll be hired by engadget staff to moderate or something.
I'm glad I stay off commenting for the most part of each day.
How will this affect the whole google music search thing? D:
"DESTROY ALL OTHER MUSIC SERVICES!
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE, ITUNES WILL RULE ALL!"
@(Unverified)
i cant believe i've to live without music in the future
@emag
Theres always Pandora heh?
Everyone, make an account now before apple charges you!
@Slutty McNugget
Did it earlier today. It's actually a really good service.. I hope Apple does something good with the service
Buying it to kill it. I like that :)
@NathanCH
Copying from the MS playbook.
i actually like lala's one song free stream feature, let hope apple doesn't take that away.
I couldn't care less.
"Unfortunately, Lala is currently only available to people in the US. We are working feverishly to expand internationally, so please stay tuned."
@Dary
Uh, you can blame that on legal precedent, not Lala.
Apple's plan of biggest data center, low cost of the planned tablet which was rumored to be $800 and this music streaming service. With all these, is Apple planning to release its so called mactablet with an OS putting data on the cloud (concept like ChromeOS) ?
This looks like they're trying to beat google to the punch with all of the rumors of a google music service going around..
Should be interesting.