As a lover of the service known as Lala, this morning I was very saddened to receive an email that I hoped would never come:
Dear Raymond B.,
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
This letter was probably written the day that Apple purchased Lala over four months ago. It further solidifies my disgust with Apple and the way they do their business. In this acquisition and destruction of a perfectly good company, they’ve literally promised services to me in exchange for my money and now backed out of our agreement. I currently have over $25 in store credit on Lala and over one hundred songs to which I’ve purchased streaming rights. Beyond that, I’ve given dozens of songs to friends and family on the service.
Lala was the most innovative approach to music that I’ve seen in years, and I was extremely excited to evangelize the service and partake in it like some sort of Dionysian zealot. Now that’s all gone because Apple saw competition, they wanted technology, and when they had it they didn’t want to share. If Apple wants to make me happy they can give me copies of my MP3′s at a loss to them or send me a check for $50. Until that time, I’m looking to warn others of what happens when a closed, heavily proprietary company in bed with numerous neerdowells. This closure makes me furious, and I’m eager to see significant blow-back from Apple’s consumer-base.
UPDATE: It would cost me over $155 to get MP3 copies of the music I’ve purchased. Screw you, Apple.
Posted on April 30th, 2010 | filed under reviews, technology, web | Trackback |
Maybe you should use that money and put it towards an iPad! On a serious note, I am sad to see it go, it was a neat idea. I know how excited you were about it, too.
Lala and Zune Pass both have this nasty lock-in going on. Though Zune Pass is more likely to be abandoned than bought out.
Speaking of innovative models, eMusic has some of the pros of Lala without the nasty downside. eMusic has lower $/song than iTunes or Amazon if you use it. eMusic went without DRM before anyone, so you really own your music. And if eMusic was going to be bought and diced up, probably would have happened by now. Wouldn’t ruin your collection either way.