Lala bought by Apple, streaming iTunes Store around the bend?

Earlier today, Greg Sandoval at CNET reportable that Apple was in talks to acquire out music-streaming assist Lala; his example suggested that these talks were in modern stages, and a care could happen at some time -- Apple meet needed to sign on the dotted line.

As of this evening, Sandoval's gossip is hunting a lot more like a finished deal. The Wall Street Journal and the NY Times are both confirming that Apple has pulled the trigger and spent a small cypher of those zillions in change on Lala. No drawing were announced, but the WSJ notes that an assets of $20 million in Lala from Warner Music Group was written downbound by more than 50% early this year.

Why Lala for Apple? The AP noted that Lala co-founder Bill Nguyen demoed an iPhone app in Oct that allowed 'intelligently cached' songs to be streamed to your iPhone, with the recently-streamed songs replayable even right of cell news areas; Wired suggests that Lala's bundle-payment setup, where users acquire course credits, could save Apple's iTunes Store millions in assign card consummation charges. The care is due to place Nguyen and the Lala engineers on Apple's payroll, though the Times notes that Lala's agreements with the labels to course penalization are non-transferable.

Lala's model for penalization moving is an engrossing one; the assist scans your hornlike intend for songs you already possess and lets you course them at will, attractive the construct Apple's also providing with Home Share to the Web (other services also permit you deal media between iTunes instances). You crapper also opt to course songs you don't already possess for $0.10 a piece, and 'upgrade' to a downloadable edition at will.

Lala also recently made an commendation with Google to offer penalization previews in Google searches, greatly expanding Lala's reach. It's not country whether Apple's acquire module hit some affect on that arrangement

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