RIP Lala, we hardly knew ye
By Tim Stevens 
posted June 1st 2010 6:55AM
posted June 1st 2010 6:55AM
Now, it's gone. We knew this was coming, a result of Apple's purchase of the site, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow. The site was doing great things and seemed to be only a few mobile apps away from being even greater. Now those apps won't happen. The service will surely be reborn in a year or two as part of some cloud-friendly iTunes, but then it's doubtful that Lala will hum its melody to any device not sporting an apple embossed on the back. That leaves non iOwners with alternatives like MP3tunes.com and Catch Media, neither as polished nor as broad, and hopes that Google Audio delivers on its promise. Until then, we'll be remembering the better times.
I hope Apple implements this acquisition the right way!
@Calijoefornia
I really believe they will since the new Apple TV was create, which will rely on cloud storage. Its sad though because the site was so good. I guess I'll use maestro for now.
@Calijoefornia
Dream on...
@Calijoefornia
Pfft, put the pipe down. Lala's aquisition was nothing more than Apple scheming to eliminate a competitor. Bow down to The Jobs, take it, love it, and ask for more.
@Calijoefornia Billboard.com, which used to use Lala is now redirecting to itunes when you click buy, and I assume it's using something from itunes when you play the songs.
@Calijoefornia
you mean by already removing the features that make the site good,
and moving to a closed system soon, charging cheap per song / album
then charging you again to listen to it from the cloud on your PC
and charging you again for the same song to stream it to your mobile
I can't wait to see some revolutionary new concept charging you 4 times, when you play a stream on your PC while the whole family (4 people) are at home changing again rules like allowing you to listen home on private usage.
Lala's dead. What a way to kick off June. I hope it's streaming in a better place =,(
@N900 never turn in your Apple-dug grave, lala :(
For a small fee of 29.99 per month. :(
Grooveshark.
@Invader Par
Ditto
@sharkync
I was going to mention imeem but I just tried going to their site and apparently Myspace bought them in December. Whoops.
I'm not even going to fake outrage I never used this.
@Loumorep This is the equivalent of raising your hand to say "I don't" when someone asks a group of people a question about something they do.
Still not end of the world..
@Vincent
Just because it's not the end of the world doesn't mean it's not relevant to people who care.
Hello, Grooveshark.
I had only two songs on Lala. I have a couple playlists on grooveshark.
My friend was a late adoptee. I told him about it mid April. He was pretty pissed when he saw that notice on the site. I thought more people knew about it, considering how it would show up in google results...
@PolarBearTC Google and Lala had worked out a deal that would feature the latter's results in searches for music.
@dalex7777 I know... I'm still surprised that even with that deal, and the prime placement of the "Listen Now" results, people still didn't know about it. My friend thought it was just a service provided by Google on their results... Another (non-techie friend) actually thought Wikipedia was by Google, because its almost always first... But she's a loser. Sad to see it go. Never spent any money on it though.
...I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lala L-A-L-A Lala
la la la la Lala........
...I loved lala (in the words of Simply Red, "holding back the tears")...
@TheEminent1
he's ginger.
Like I said a week before, Apple isn't gonna do shit with Lala. Which sucks.
It'll probably be used for that new AppleTV coming out.
Just my theory...
I doubt we will see a subscription service from iTunes any time soon. Lala is issuing iTunes credits for all the web albums I purchased.
@divideby0 I disagree. Knowing that Google will have streaming media from your PC in an upcoming version of Android--ostensibly Gingerbread this fall--Apple will want to be there first and will probably bundle this into their WWDC announcements next Monday.
They don't tent to wait on these things, just like they showed their iAds platform during the iPhone OS keynote, which was based on their recent acquistion of Quattro Wireless.
Lala was AMAZING. I found so many bands through there. They let you stream anything once, including entire albums. When I was checking out a new genre, I got to listen to someones entire catalogue, figure out what albums I really liked, and went out and bought them. It was fantastic.
I am going to seriously miss this. I really hope Apple brings it back so we can sample entire albums for free again. It increased my music purchasing ten fold.
I love(d) lala, and when it was acquired I was almost sure Apple was just trying to snuff the competition. I would be very surprised to see Apple implement something as good (and as free) as this. I absolutely loved the song upload tool because I could upload my entire music library on my account and use it in any web browser. It was so handy whenever I didn't have an MP3 player on hand.
@Vaughanabe13 except instead of a tiny little app that sits in your tray, you'll have to use the 1600lb bloated gorilla that is itunes :(
Well then, i guess Torrents are always Readily Available...Just Saying.
The best thing about Lala was that you could stream any song in its entirety for free once. So basically you could check out an entire album or anything, really, before buying. No other service allows that. Did I mention Last.fm integration?
Grooveshark is not a substitute: it has a horribly messy UI and terrible metadata.
RIP indeed.
A few ardent Lala supporters have explained what was unique about Lala and why you might not see anything like it soon.
See http://mog.com/DLuebbert/blog/1977088
If apple brings this back in a form similar to what it is now, I'll have to recant (almost) everything I've ever said bad about apple and jobs.
Unfortunately, I suspect LALA in all of it's forms is dead.
I don't see what all the fuss was about. Lala never worked for me, all I ever get was messages about it not been available in your area.
Ok, I try to refrain from the Apple/Microsoft wars but with this one I say a whole heartedly F)*K YOU STEVE!!!!