When Apple bought Lala, everyone anticipated that iTunes.com streaming music service was on the horizon, but now CNET hears it might be on hold as Apple works on… streaming video.

But eight months after the acquisition, Apple is telling executives at the four top labels that if Apple offers any cloud-music features within the next few months, they will likely be “modest in scope” and not include the kind of functionality that Apple outlined in meetings with the labels, such as storing users’ music on its servers, sources told CNET. They added that Apple still hasn’t negotiated the kind of licensing deals it would need to distribute music from the cloud.

Delays launching a cloud music service might disappoint some iTunes users, but if Apple is focusing resources on a cloud-video service it could be welcomed by those who have maxed out hard drives with films and TV shows. Sources at the major film studios have said this year that Apple plans to create “digital shelves” that enable iTunes users to store movies and other media on Apple’s servers.

Add to all this that one of the Lala execs is rumored to have already moved on from Apple, and Internet/iTunes lead honcho Eddy Cue reportedly took a long time to even tell the Lala team what Apple wanted to do with them, and it seems like there’s a lack of urgency around One Infinite Loop.

With competition from a Google Music service on the horizon, can Apple afford to take their time rolling out the iTunes Cloud? Are they far enough ahead in media that it doesn’t matter? Could they actually be waiting for Google to negotiate cloud-streaming licenses with Big Media so Apple can simply adopt them as well and add to the existing iTunes service? Time — and perhaps this fall’s annual iPod touch/iTunes event — will tell.

Are you getting impatient for your streams? Does it matter to you if Apple rolls out video from the clouds before music?

[CNET]

Streaming music service Lala closed its virtual doors today. Acquired by Apple last year, rumors persist that Lala talent and technology will be a part of an upcoming iTunes.com service that moves Apple music, movie, and TV offerings to the cloud.

Recent leaks about an iPhone OS-powered Apple TV that would stream content directly from iTunes seem to play into these rumors, as do Apple’s huge data center being built in North Carolina and iTunes Preview, the new web-based front-end to iTunes media and app content.

Still, that might be the future, but as of today Lala is no more.

[Lala.com]

Streaming music service Lala, acquired by Apple back in early December, 2009, has sent a letter to subscribers telling them they’re shutting down as of May 31, and while remaining credit will get transferred to iTunes, streaming music won’t show up in an iTunes.com any time soon.

The Lala service will be shut down on May 31st.

In appreciation of your support over the last five years, you will receive a credit in the amount of your Lala web song purchases for use on Apple’s iTunes Store. If you purchased and downloaded mp3 songs from Lala, those songs will continue to play as part of your local music library.

Remaining wallet balances and unredeemed gift cards will be converted to iTunes Store credit (or can be refunded upon request). Gift cards can be redeemed on Lala until May 31st.

Click here or visit Lala.com/support for more information, or to view Lala’s Terms of Service.

Thank you.

Lala

Rumors have persisted that Apple bought Lala for the talent, or for the lower-cost transaction system, or to take iTunes to the cloud. None of that has materialized so far, but speculation remains that Steve Jobs will drop hints of a Lala-inspired iTunes future at the All Things Digital Conference (where he’s introduced a new version of iTunes before), or at WWDC 2010 alongside the 4th generation iPhone (iPhone HD/iPhone 4G) and the final version of iPhone OS 4. If not, Apple’s traditional September iTunes and iPod event would be the next likely candidate.

That is, if music companies allow it.

MediaMemo reports that the record labels believe if iTunes users get streaming music to any and all of their devices, the labels deserve a bigger share of the revenue. (Because if I decided to play my CD in my car, in my home stereo, and in my portable while jogging, I had to pay more for that bit of plastic, right?)

While Apple could reasonably and probably legally argue the record labels are crazy and do iTunes.com anyway, it would “enrage” the labels and hurt Apple’s efforts to expand TV and other content.

Maybe they could insist Apple create an iTunes++ where they charge us $2 a song for streaming rights. Given the drop in sales following their forcing Apple to raise the price of a “hit” song from $0.99 to $1.29, it would likely be a disaster for everyone, labels, consumers, and Apple. Which means it’s probably just what they’re trying to do, right?

[Lala and MediaMemo, thanks for the tip Russell!]

In a guest-post on TechCrunch, MP3.com founder and MP3tunes CEO, Michael Robertson cites a “wide variety of insider sources” when saying Apple will NOT offer subscription services any time soon, but rather leverage their recent acquisition of Lala to take iTunes to the cloud:

An upcoming major revision of iTunes will copy each user’s catalog to the net making it available from any browser or net connected ipod/touch/tablet. The Lala upload technology will be bundled into a future iTunes upgrade which will automatically be installed for the 100+ million itunes users with a simple “An upgrade is available…” notification dialog box. After installation iTunes will push in the background their entire media library to their personal mobile iTunes area. Once loaded, users will be able to navigate and play their music, videos and playlists from their personal URL using a browser based iTunes experience.

This, Robertson maintains, will allow Apple to sidestep new licensing agreements and still provide content to the tens of millions of iPhones, iPod touches, Apple TVs, and (presumably forthcoming) iTablets/iSlates. Lala’s involvement in specific, he says, will give Apple a jump-start in rolling out the service, essential in competing with the likes of online-powerhouse Amazon.

And Robertson states flat out we can expect mobile iTunes in 2010.

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The Wall Street Journal is weighing in on Apple’s purchase of online streaming music service, Lala, saying Apple is using it to explore taking iTunes to the cloud:

Lala.com lets users buy and listen to music through a Web browser, meaning its customers can access purchases from anywhere, as long as they are connected to the Internet. Apple is considering adopting that same model for songs sold on iTunes, a change that would give consumers more ways to access and manage their iTunes purchases—and wouldn’t require them to download Apple’s software or their purchases.

According to the WSJ, Apple paid $85 million for Lala, and that the big brains behind the service would be given “very significant roles” inside Apple.

Even before the acquisition closed Friday, Lala Chairman Bill Nguyen and Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president for Internet services, began making joint calls to various business partners, including record-label groups, discussing possibilities for the music service’s future.

Big Media is said to be cautiously optimistic about the concept, “optimistic” about web-based purchases, but “cautious” about adding to iTunes already dominant position in online music. And, of course, with plans still in the early stages, much could change before Steve Jobs or Phil Schiller put sneaker to stage and announce a customer facing solution.

While anywhere, anytime access sounds appealing, they also point out that past services have had problems negotiating “virtual goods”, such as Amazon pulling books from users’ Kindles, and we’d add Microsoft’s DRM services shutting down and placing access to user-purchased content in doubt. There’s still that Google partnership to navigate as well.

All in all, however, if iTunes goes cloud, as long as we still have the ability to buy and download music as well if we so choose, TiPb thinks it will be a net gain. (No pun intended). What do you think?

Apple snapped up online music streaming start-up Lala, and now attention has turned from the what to the why, with three areas of focus: the streaming itself, the talent behind it, and/or the bundled pay model that financed it. For those catching up, Lala scans a user’s hard drive for music, then allows them to stream that music over the internet, from anywhere, desktop or mobile. In other words, cloud-based iTunes.

Apple PR’s Steve Dowling sheds little light himself:

Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not comment on our purpose or plans.

The traditional “source familiar with the matter” told Reuters:

Apple recognizes that the model is going to evolve into a streaming one and this could probably propel iTunes to the next level.”

While the New York Times is hearing, from “one person with knowledge of the deal”:

This person said Apple would primarily be buying Lala’s engineers, including its energetic co-founder Bill Nguyen, and their experience with cloud-based music services.

Some have also mentioned Lala’s payment system, which might handle bundled transactions more cheaply for Apple than iTunes’ current system. Still, regardless of the reasons, like the PA Semi and PlaceBase purchases, it will be interesting to see where Apple goes with Lala. Any guesses?

UPDATE: MediaMemo is reporting, based on multiple sources, that Apple paid around $80 million for Lala.

UPDATE 2: TechCrunch says the sale price was closer to $18 million:

LaLa was purchased for $17 million by Apple, according to our sources with indirect knowledge of the deal. And the company supposedly had $14 million in cash in the bank, meaning the actual purchase price was really $3 million.

[via MacRumors]

UPDATE: The New York Times says Apple is, in fact, buying Lala:

This person said Apple would primarily be buying Lala’s engineers, including its energetic co-founder Bill Nguyen, and their experience with cloud-based music services.

Lala’s engineers have built a service that music enthusiasts say is very easy to use. Lala scans the hard drives of its users and creates an online music library that matches the user’s collection, making it painless (and free) for people to get their music in the cloud.

ORIGINAL: Last we heard, cloud/streaming music service Lala was getting on the iPhone App Store while simultaneously partnering with Google, but now there are reports that Apple might just be in negotiations to buy them outright (Lala, not Google!)

Talks are very advanced, said the sources. One of the sources said that the sides have already agreed on terms and have only to sign a final agreement.

Steve Dowling, Apple’s spokesman, said the company doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation. A representative from Lala was not immediately available.

Would Apple marry Lala’s “store everything in the cloud and stream it to your devices” with their “people want to own their music” on-drive iTunes? Contradictory or complementary?

Do you see a fit? Do you want one?

[CNET via MacRumors]

Streaming music has gotten pretty popular among iPhone owners and today we’d like to introduce you to one more option, Lala.

Lala gives you the ability to listen to any song for free one time. If you happen to like the song you pay $0.10 for unlimited listening. And at $0.10 per “Web Song” you can pretty much purchase a full album for a single dollar. That may not convince all of you but Lala has one more trick up it’s sleeve — you can upload your entire music library from your computer to the cloud for you to stream back to your iPhone, completely free. Lose you data connection for some reason? No worries as Lala uses caching to save your music. Exactly how much is cached is not known just yet but it’s a nice feature regardless.

This is definitely an app worth taking a closer look at when it hits the App Store. It should be free to download and you can expect to see it available within the next few weeks.

[Via TechCrunch]