Lala.com is an on-demand online music streaming service that was recently acquired by Apple. I’m a musician, as well as an avid music listener. I’m also not a fan of Apple products. However, I don’t see myself ditching it anytime soon.
I started using Lala before Apple bought it, and it’s solved a difficult problem of mine – how do I listen to my enormous music library when I’m away from home?
Lala lets you store your existing mp3 collection in their cloud. The process of moving my collection was simple:
- Install their “Lala Music Mover” Windows app.
- Point it at the music folder(s) you store your mp3s in.
- Let it do its magic (can take quite a while for large collections).
The Music Mover will even monitor those folders and upload tracks as necessary to your Lala account. For each song that Lala already has in its web collection (which are most of them), your track won’t actually be uploaded to their servers. It will simply be added to your web collection. Tracks that it can’t match with their collection is actually uploaded.
My music collection’s on Lala. Now what?
Now, wherever you are in the world, you can point your browser to lala.com, log in, and your music collection is available to stream. The price? FREE
To get more songs into your web collection, you can purchase what are known as “web songs” from Lala directly, for 10 cents a piece (and a little less than that when buying full albums). As you might guess, these web songs don’t come with downloadable mp3s. They simply authorize you to stream that song anytime you want via Lala.com.
The next step – ubiquitous access
I’ve purchased 50 or so web songs so far, and it’s nice to legitimately purchase music for such a tiny price. However, if Lala could make consuming your Lala collection more convenient, then I’d be a user for life. This is what I mean by “more convenient”:
- Release mobile apps for Android, iPhone, etc.
- Figure out how to stream Lala in my car (3G-enabled media player?)
I must say that I was much more optimistic about Lala before it was purchased by the kings of closed platforms. Only time will tell how Apple will treat their newly-acquired cloud music service. Will they turn it into an extension of iTunes? Obviously there will be some sort of iTunes integration, but it’s not yet clear what that will look like. As an Android user, I’m not expecting an official Lala app anytime soon, considering Apple and Google are in the middle of a vicious war over the mobile computing space.
UPDATE:
Directly after writing this post, I came across an interesting service called mog.com. It offers a $5/month subscription model, which includes premium music discovery features, both algorithmic and socially via your “trusted moggers.” I’m going to try out the 3-day free trial of Mog in the next week or so to get a better feel for the service. Stay tuned!
How Lala.com Could Conquer the Music Industry
I started using Lala before Apple bought it, and it’s solved a difficult problem of mine – how do I listen to my enormous music library when I’m away from home?
Lala lets you store your existing mp3 collection in their cloud. The process of moving my collection was simple:
The Music Mover will even monitor those folders and upload tracks as necessary to your Lala account. For each song that Lala already has in its web collection (which are most of them), your track won’t actually be uploaded to their servers. It will simply be added to your web collection. Tracks that it can’t match with their collection is actually uploaded.
My music collection’s on Lala. Now what?
Now, wherever you are in the world, you can point your browser to lala.com, log in, and your music collection is available to stream. The price? FREE
To get more songs into your web collection, you can purchase what are known as “web songs” from Lala directly, for 10 cents a piece (and a little less than that when buying full albums). As you might guess, these web songs don’t come with downloadable mp3s. They simply authorize you to stream that song anytime you want via Lala.com.
The next step – ubiquitous access
I’ve purchased 50 or so web songs so far, and it’s nice to legitimately purchase music for such a tiny price. However, if Lala could make consuming your Lala collection more convenient, then I’d be a user for life. This is what I mean by “more convenient”:
I must say that I was much more optimistic about Lala before it was purchased by the kings of closed platforms. Only time will tell how Apple will treat their newly-acquired cloud music service. Will they turn it into an extension of iTunes? Obviously there will be some sort of iTunes integration, but it’s not yet clear what that will look like. As an Android user, I’m not expecting an official Lala app anytime soon, considering Apple and Google are in the middle of a vicious war over the mobile computing space.
UPDATE:
Directly after writing this post, I came across an interesting service called mog.com. It offers a $5/month subscription model, which includes premium music discovery features, both algorithmic and socially via your “trusted moggers.” I’m going to try out the 3-day free trial of Mog in the next week or so to get a better feel for the service. Stay tuned!