Apple Buys Lala: Social iTunes At Last?

Lala, unlike Apple’s iTunes, lets users play the music they own from the Web — or in tech industry parlance, from the cloud. If Apple introduces its own cloud-based streaming music service, it would let people skip having to download music they buy or synchronize their music collection between their computers and mobile devices.

A person’s music library would always be available on the Web and accessible on a PC, smartphone or other Web-connected mobile device.

Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, said the company “buys smaller technology companies all the time, and we generally do not comment on our purpose or plans.” A Lala representative could not be reached. News of a possible deal was first reported earlier on Friday by Bloomberg News and CNet, a technology news site. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“I am sure Apple is watching streaming music, the traction of Pandora, of course, and other streaming applications on the iPhone,” said David Goldberg, head of SurveyMonkey and the former general manager of Yahoo Music. “There’s a legitimate question here: Why should people have to download music?”

Other music industry insiders are wondering what Apple is buying exactly. Lala’s licenses for streaming music with the major music labels are not transferable to any acquirer, and its service has not been a hit with mainstream consumers.

via www.nytimes.com

Why is it that the stupid financial analysts can’t look at the application? The reason for this deal is to make iTunes social, not for the licenses to play clips.

Expect to see the Lala social stream become the dominant motif of a future iTunes. (Another prediction for 2010.)