Apple Buys Lala Music Streaming, But Why?

Apple has snapped up music streaming biz Lala in what many initially thought to be a move to step beyond the strict download market of iTunes. On closer inspection it seems that Lala was a somewhat less-than-ideal target and Apple may just be gunning for ready-made engineering talent. "On balance, the purchase appears to give Apple the chance to bring in engineers that will be useful now, and could be even more so if it chooses to enter streaming or subscription services. But, for the moment, there's nothing about the purchase that seems to provide the company with any key technologies it was missing in terms of diving into markets. Until another company demonstrates that there's money to be made (or iPods to be sold) through streaming, there's no reason to think that a move of this sort is imminent."

Comments

One Word

[Alcoholic Synonymous]

Google Search for any song online via Google and Lala brought a stream right to you. First listen is free, after that you have to pay. Why would Apple buy them? Considering most sane people use Google and Lala doesn't require something like iTunes, Lala was in a better position to bring music people want directly to them. This is just eliminating the competition before they got too big. Can I get an Antitrust Amen?

Re:One Word

[Enderandrew]

What if they want to just use Lala as a gateway for directing people to buy music off iTunes?

People search for music. They get the Lala sample, and then iTunes swoops in for the sale.

Seems very logical to me.

Re:Logic Pro anyone? One less Windows product

[jo_ham]

iTunes runs on Windows. How would making it iTunes-only restrict it to the Mac platform?

How did this get modded insightful?

obviously, you haven't been paying attention...

[Thud457]

Is Google competition for iTunes?

I've honestly not ever heard that before.

Google is competition for everything, it's just a matter of how soon.

It's a dessert topping and a floor polish.