Apple acquires streaming music service Lala

Apple enlarges her share in the music distribution business. Besides iTunes’ Store, that offers paid access to songs or albums, Apple enters the scene of streaming music by acquiring Lala.

With Lala, users get online access to their own music collection and can expand that collection for small amounts of money. Unlimited streaming access costs 10 cents a song. Downloading is offered as a possibility, too, for 89 cents per song.

The service is accessible only from within the United States.

Apple previously stated that it had little faith in streaming services, as consumers like to own a local copy of songs. This seems to be changing slowly but surely. Streaming services, like Deezer, Spotify and Last.fm are gaining in popularity.

8-12-2009