Apple Closing Lala 5/31. Is iTunes In The Cloud Next?
Lala is shutting down
The Lala service will be shut down on May 31st, 2010.
Unfortunately, we are no longer accepting new users.
That was the simple message posted on the lala.com home page last night. Does this mean iTune's in the cloud is nearing launch? And what does it mean for Google music search results that point to lala? Apple, as usual isn't talking. But, stay tuned…
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And what about users of the site? Will Apple remember them and let their uploaded songs migrate to iTunes?
What must be horrible is those users who actually bought web songs, and now will be losing them.
What a raw deal!
Okay, I have more information. This is what it says after I logged in for additional information:
Service Available through May 31, 2010
You will be able to access and play all music in your Lala collection through May 31, 2010. Any mp3 songs purchased and downloaded from Lala will continue to play as part of your local music library. You can continue to purchase mp3 songs through May 31st using your wallet balance or other payment methods.
As of today, web songs, wallets, and gift cards are no longer available for purchase on Lala. Uploads have been discontinued, and we are not accepting new users for the service.
Refunds and Credits
Web songs. In appreciation of your support, you will receive a credit in the amount of your Lala web song purchases for use on Apple’s iTunes Store.
Wallet balances. If you have an outstanding wallet balance on May 31st, we will also issue you an iTunes Store credit for that amount. If you prefer to have your wallet balance refunded to you via check, you must make that request by May 31st.
Unredeemed Gift Cards. Gift cards can be redeemed on Lala until May 31st. The gift card amount will be added to your wallet balance, and included as part of your wallet balance refund.
This is exactly why the much-lauded cloud is still several years away. The company fails or is bought out, and everything evaporates.
Simply lala was better than iTunes in many ways so Apple the all mighty capitalist pac-man had to eat it!
Psonar is worth checking out as a replacement.
It’s also a cloud-based solution so you can upload the music you own so it is accessible everywhere, from any internet-connected device.
It offers unlimited storage and unlimited streaming for free.
You can also search and listen to clips of any other track uploaded to the cloud and buy that music if you like.
Psonar does more though – it also provides web-based iTunes-style management so that you can drag and drop tracks to any device, such as your iPhone, Android device or MP3 player – in fact anything that you can connect to a PC via USB. This means you can have your music on your device when that’s best, but also in the cloud – so it’s also great for backup:
http://blog.psonar.com/2010/02/26/laptop-dead-music-safe/
So – it’s perfect if you love your old MP3 player, want to keep your music on an inexpensive memory stick or for when you don’t have an internet connection and thus offers you the best of both worlds.