This past December, popular cloud-based music service Lala was purchased by computer conglomerate Apple for an undisclosed sum. For the following months, not much changed for either company; Apple still sold beta versions of products to the public for free product testing (here’s looking at you, iPad), and Lala quietly remained one of the internet’s best cloud-based music subscription services.
Today, though, Lala posted an announcement on its front page that it would be shutting down, effective May 31. This follows a month that found the site no longer accepting uploads via their Music Mover application, closing beta testing for its iPhone application, and now no longer accepting new members to the service. Users with web purchases from Lala will get credit to the iTunes store, as well as remaining money and gift card balances with the site, and any downloaded songs from Lala will work with iTunes.
Apple has not released a statement in regard to what will happen after Lala closes. There have been rumors swirling since the company’s purchase of Lala that Apple will be building their own cloud-based music subscription service into iTunes using Lala’s technology, but nothing definitive has been announced. For now, there’s nothing to do but await the fallout of all those dead links that’ll soon be cropping up on Pitchfork.
• Lala: http://www.lala.com
[Photo: SoraZG]
