Lala launches on-demand free streaming music service
LaLa is now offering users the ability to listen to an unlimited amount of on-dem
an
d streaming music, for free, marking the first time this has been available legally. Their tag line is “Play albums on demand, buy the ones you love.”This Lala is clearly aimed at iTunes, users can listen to complete songs as often as they like, while maintaining their playlists online as well. I just tried them out, the player is embedded and pretty neat. Their website also now looks pretty intuitive with Web 2.0 capabilities. Songs can be directly downloaded directly to the iPod too, at a price of $0.99 per song.
So, this helps us in two ways -
(1) I don't need to maintain songs on my computer, which I currently do
(2) Unlike Napster which was doomed to be illegal, Lala is legal and hence prevents the need for P2P sharing
You must try this out, I have a feeling I'm going to be addicted to this.
Labels: Geeks are sexy, Just Casual
posted by Padmanaban Kumar (Paddu @ Just for Kicks) at 3:03 AM
5 Comments:
I'm surely going to check this out. Will it work with the iPhone?
Looks like a change in their business model. Do you think they can survive long offering free streaming?
-HR
iPhone - I hope it comes backward compatible with the iPod at least - that is, whatever devices the iPod could work with, the iPhone should be able to work with too. So, I think downloading songs from the Internet should be a viable feature for the iPhone
Harkish,
Good question. I love it when these small companies change their business models, I smell an interesting CEO or CMO there.
However, there are two issues that I see with Lala's success -
1. Profitability sustenance - It is a huge bet that Lala is placing on the future of online music. I don't have information yet about their breakeven points, but they'll have to cover their licensing fees with whatever they make from just selling downloads, which might shrink in number due to free streaming. How would Apple respond to this launch, might the worthwhile to guess....
2. mp3.com launched a similar service around 5 years ago if I remember right, and was forced to shutdown due to a lawsuit from some label company. I don't believe the regulations have changed much, so have the Lala folks done their homework or got competent legal advice??
Pretty cool, bro! Hope it lasts...
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