
Apple killed lala.com - todd3834
https://www.lala.com/ssignin?action=Shutdown
======
dandelany
Wow. This is... infuriating. I've purchased ~$100 (~75 albums) worth of
streaming albums on Lala and I'm _not_ happy to see them converted into ten
albums worth of iTunes credits.

I have to say: so far I've been really unimpressed with the recent efforts to
paint Apple as the new "Big Brother". But to purchase a company which is
pioneering new methods of music distribution, and almost immediately shut them
down and force their purchases to fit your distribution model is anti-
innovation, monopolistic, and completely contrary to the kind of "different
thinking" that has gotten Apple to where it is today. Utterly depressing.

~~~
tjogin
Yeah that sucks, but maybe there's a lesson to be learned here:

 _Don't purchase_ streaming services for a one-time cost. Streaming services
should be _subscription_ services. Just _don't do_ this. Let the industry know
that if you're to purchase something, you should have infinite access to it —
otherwise it should be a subscription service.

Btw, Apple probably wouldn't buy a streaming service unless they're planning
to offer one themselves. Not that it changes your situation in any way. Just
saying that they probably didn't do it just to shut it down.

~~~
darrenkopp
yup. this is why i use zune pass. monthly streaming subscription AND 10 free
song purchases a month (DRM free)

~~~
omnivore
I use Zune Pass too and I've been generally satisfied with it. It's a lot
better now than it used to be, almost to the point where I could probably
ditch my Rhapsody subscription but Rhapsody proves pretty useful and has been
venerable for ages now. I never could get into lala and I'm glad I didn't
after this move.

------
todd3834
I just got the following email:

This is an automated message. Please do not reply.

Dear _____,

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

©2005-2010 la la media, inc. All rights reserved.

------
TheBranca18
Anyone tried Grooveshark (<http://listen.grooveshark.com>)? I know it's in
Flash but on first glance it seems to be a combination of Lala and Slacker.

~~~
jessriedel
Grooveshark is great (though it occasionally is missing music). But it's only
a matter of time before it is shut down.

~~~
gte910h
While I hope your second sentence is false, my wife has that program up
playing in our condo about 1/3 of the time.

------
underdown
Wow. Shitty. Didn't those of us who used lala join specifically because we
hated itunes?

~~~
aasarava
Exactly.

------
ivankirigin
I'm not too upset at my money lost. It easily justifies stealing the music
myself. I really will lament not having a good web music player.

Anyone know of an itunes-like client which you can point to your server or S3?
I'm happy to host things myself.

~~~
piramida
There are a number of free web-based players with a nice interface, I use
prostopleer.com.

As more such virtual goods (video, audio, books, etc) companies will fail to
offer reliable long-term service, customers will force them to switch to a
model where you get something better than a temporary database record for your
money.

Meanwhile, I'm only paying for service subscriptions.

------
araneae
I wonder about the timing of it; could it be, in fact, a result of Google
featuring Lala songs in web search?

I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but in the past few weeks when I
would Google a song, a Lala box would be at the top of the page allowing you
to stream the song. Obviously now there is no way to stream the song directly
from the Google search page.

Now that it's war between Google and Apple, I can see this bringing Lala to
Apple's attention.

------
waxman
iTunes Cloud TBA at WWDC? I'm excited to free up some hard-drive space.

~~~
mikeyur
I've been much more interested in what Spotify is doing. I think if they could
get into North America before Apple, they'd do quite well.

At the moment I'm stuck with a UK VPN. I've been really happy with the
service, it just feels like the future.

~~~
spicyj
How do you deal with the credit card and address requirements?

~~~
mikeyur
I have friends in the UK, I paid them via Paypal and they setup the account
for me. I realized when I was there in November last year I could've also
gotten a prepaid credit card.

------
goodside
(Edit: Never mind. This is just for unspent credit. Resume being pissed.)

For everyone pissed about being forced to have iTunes credit: You can also
have a check instead. Log in and read the fine print. You just have to fill
out your mailing address on a form.

~~~
thehodge
Isn't that only for unused credits, not for credit which has been used on
songs

------
look_lookatme
First reaction is this sucks, second is I hope iTunes.com is HTML5, else I'm
screwed.

------
todd3834
It would have really been nice if they would wait until iTunes in the cloud
launched

~~~
cmelbye
And then automatically migrate over Lala users to the new iTunes service.

------
rcbuse
As far as I'm concerned, LaLa died when it stopped being the CD Trading
community.

------
cageface
This is definitely the last straw. I use Lala daily and it's been a great way
to discover new music and bring my collection everywhere I go without having
to copy a big library around. I am done as an Apple customer and will do
everything I can to make sure all my friends understand the nature of the
company before buying any of their products.

This is not the scrappy, innovative underdog Apple we all used to love. This
is a nascent suffocating and abusive monopoly that deserves an organized
boycott.

~~~
protomyth
What did you expect to happen? A small startup decides it is in their best
interest to sell-out to a big company. Google has closed startups. What would
you say to the founders? Would you have made the same decision? Sadly, this is
the price of being an early adopter.

------
jorgecastillo
Some people here really make me laugh. Hating business for what business do is
silly. As the saying goes vote with your dollars and convince family/friends
to vote with you. If you really feel laws should be changed write to your
congressman and/or vote a different congressmen next election.

------
jwinter
It's funny, the same thing happened to anywhere.fm, of which lala is basically
an updated version. They made a fun way to listen to all of your own music
online, they got bought out, and they disappeared. Maybe YC should fund
another anywhere.fm?

------
mikebo
This shouldn't be _that_ surprising. Lala's deals with record labels weren't
transferrable to an acquirer, so the real surprise is how this has ran for so
long.

------
calaniz
I hope Apple relaunches this within iTunes. I loved lala.com and am sad to see
it go. I found myself purchasing streamed albums after a certain point.

------
tzs
Now if they could just get rid of Po and Tinky Winky...

------
mumrah
Here's the email from Lala <http://i.imgur.com/LzQ3l.png>

------
ahoyhere
The founders killed lala.com because they sold out to Apple.

Just like the founders killed Jaiku, MeasureMap, Dodgeball, etc. and any
number of other web services we've used and loved... til they got bought.

If you want to be angry at somebody, be angry at the founders for "selling
out" - for going for the big payday.

That, after all, what most people here on HN are aiming for, right?

So how can you begrudge them for getting what they wanted?

~~~
nkohari
That's not a reason to be angry at someone. If you're upset that they "sold
out," go build your own. Most of us are in this to not only build cool things,
but to _make money_.

~~~
robryan
True, it depends on the service your offering though, in a case like this the
right thing would be to ensure (baring bankruptcy) that the streaming will be
available long term, or be more upfront with people that it is limited.

While it is true there is the offer you can't refuse type deal I'm not a fan
of some founders who you hear a lot about their big plans and the quality of
the product or service they are providing, you get interested in purchasing
and the next second they are gone.

------
pontifier
Wow. I was so mad when they launched. I thought for a while that they had
implemented a system I had been working on, and they got 10M in funding. Then
I saw how they decided to work it and I laughed. I knew they would fail
eventually when they decided to do what everyone else is doing.

I may be slow to get to market, but the entire online music market is still
stupid, and nobody is doing what I will.

~~~
fragmede
If by 'fail' you mean 'get bought by Apple', then yeah.

~~~
kloncks
I disagree with his point but to be fair, fragmede, that "sale by Apple" was a
firesale.

A company that raised $35.1 million in funding was sold for $17.

