Apple acquires music service Lala

[Innuendo]

I know a few people here use Lala.com for their music needs & I thought this might need to be posted. Evidently Apple has purchased music service Lala in order to "take iTunes to the next level." I don't know about the rest of you, but that sounds ominous for Lala remaining a stand-alone service.

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B409C20091205

[Deozaan]

No!

[Innuendo]

No!

I had a feeling that would be the reaction over here. Sorry I'm the bearer of bad news.

[lanux128]

from Downloadsquad.com:

When Apple acquired Lala, a lot of people wondered how long the popular streaming audio service would last. ... and today we've got our answer: about five months

Source: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/04/30/apple-puts-a-bullet-in-lala-zombie-lala-to-return-as-itunes-str/

[Edvard]

Let's hope Last.fm doesn't fall anytime soon...

[Innuendo]

As soon as I posted the OP about Apple acquiring LaLa I knew this was going to happen.

If Microsoft had done this the outrage on the internet would be strong, but people seem to let Steve Jobs & Company get away with murder...

[Deozaan]

So how am I going to be able to listen to my digital streaming-only music I purchased from Lala?

[Deozaan]

What the heck? I had like 50 song credits on my account and now they're gone!

[app103]

So how am I going to be able to listen to my digital streaming-only music I purchased from Lala?

You are going to receive a refund for the stuff you paid for, in the form of an iTunes gift certificate.

What the heck? I had like 50 song credits on my account and now they're gone!

They took everyone's remaining credits, because they don't want you spending them now. You'll get it back when they give you your iTunes gift certificate.

[Deozaan]

Boo! I hate iTunes. I refuse to put it on any of my PCs.

Thanks for the answers, App. Even if I don't like them.

[Innuendo]

You are going to receive a refund for the stuff you paid for, in the form of an iTunes gift certificate.

Sounds roughly equivalent to someone taking my new PC away & refunding my money in the form of a gift certificate good for purchasing cow manure.

[Edvard]

So, what's a good replacement?
iLike? Rhapsody? Pandora?

Since I'm running Xubuntu, I'll most likely be checking out the new Ubuntu One Music store.
I just wish they had support for VLC...

[Renegade]

What the heck? I had like 50 song credits on my account and now they're gone!

GRRRRR... Figures. Apple is a...

FAIR WARNING: OBSCENITY LADEN AND OFFENSIVE

ratfuck dirty bunch of lying, cheating, thieving diseased cunts. Apple would rape its sister to spite its mother.

But to be honest, I'm not really all that surprised. Apple's policies in the iTunes store are outright evil and show nothing but contempt for their customers. They're the worst possible terms you could come up with short of...

MORE FAIR WARNING: OBSCENITY LADEN AND OFFENSIVE

simply pulling the consumer's pants down and ass-raping them with a barbed-wire baseball bat in order to get the blood to write the agreement in.

It amazes me that nobody ever comments on just how sinister the TOS and agreements are.

I suppose "taking iTunes to the next level" means a lower level.   

[Stoic Joker]

What the heck? I had like 50 song credits on my account and now they're gone!

I suppose "taking iTunes to the next level" means a lower level.    

Well, it does seem such a shame for Dante's Rings (of hell) system to go to waste...

[Renegade]

Well, it does seem such a shame for Dante's Rings (of hell) system to go to waste...

I can just hear the Devil complaining, "There goes the neighborhood..."

[Edvard]

Hehe, some reading material for ya:
http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/

With iTunes I don't feel guilty when I download music -- Apple and the record labels handle the screw job for me.

More and more I'm thinking of just getting my music from Rapidshare or Megaupload and sending the price of a new CD directly to the band.


(Waitaminnit... I think that qualifies as a Damn Good Idea^©, too bad I didn't think of it first )

[wraith808]

What I don't get is if you gave your money for credits under the old EULA, would you be bound by the EULA of itunes now?  It would seem that they would have to give you an opt out option- thereby making them liable to you for the money that you have tied up in the service.

I smell a class action lawsuit here...

[Stoic Joker]

That's why most EULA's contain the line "We (the evil corp) reserve the right to update, modify, completely rewrite this agreement at any moment based entirely on our own whim.

[wraith808]

That's why most EULA's contain the line "We (the evil corp) reserve the right to update, modify, completely rewrite this agreement at any moment based entirely on our own whim.

But when they do it, don't they have to give you the chance to opt-out?

[Stoic Joker]

That's why most EULA's contain the line "We (the evil corp) reserve the right to update, modify, completely rewrite this agreement at any moment based entirely on our own whim.

But when they do it, don't they have to give you the chance to opt-out?

In a perfect world...

In ours it appears not, you have one shot to accept/reject the EULA and any changes/updates that follow. Which is why most people never read the silly things - They're long winded, god-awful boaring, and subject to change by the time you get to the end of the S.O.B.

[Innuendo]

But when they do it, don't they have to give you the chance to opt-out?

No, because the words Stoic Joker just typed are usually followed by words that mean essentially: We reserve to change this EULA without having to notify anybody of anything anytime anywhere.

[wraith808]

But when they do it, don't they have to give you the chance to opt-out?

No, because the words Stoic Joker just typed are usually followed by words that mean essentially: We reserve to change this EULA without having to notify anybody of anything anytime anywhere.

Well then why do certain services pop up the EULA to get you to agree to additions/changes, and other don't?  iTunes does it quite a bit... it would seem that if your agreement was in perpetuity that they wouldn't have to show you; it would fall to you to read it periodically or something (which seems quite wrong).  Somehow, I get the feeling that it's not as black and white as that (though I could very well be wrong).

[Edvard]

Quick, they're still doing business until May 31st.
You can still log in and buy stuff until then, so drain your wallet before Jobs and Co. get their grubby mitts on it!!

[Renegade]

Hehe, some reading material for ya:
http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/

With iTunes I don't feel guilty when I download music -- Apple and the record labels handle the screw job for me.

More and more I'm thinking of just getting my music from Rapidshare or Megaupload and sending the price of a new CD directly to the band.


(Waitaminnit... I think that qualifies as a Damn Good Idea^©, too bad I didn't think of it first )

Amen!

I feel the same way about DVDs. I have quite a few (non-pirated) DVDs that I can't play because of protection schemes on them that are simply broken (e.g. Macrovision) or region codes that prevent me from playing them. It's a very broken system.

When you buy pirated DVDs, they simply work. Sure, every now and then you'll get one that's broken, or you'll get the wrong movie entirely, but you still end up ahead because non-pirated DVDs are still broken more often than pirated ones. (Region codes make them 100% broken.)

Another thing is that in some places, the only ones available are pirated ones.

I'm particularly bitter about it because on every single system where I want to play my Star Wars DVDs, they're always broken (that just happens to be the set that I go to play first all the time and hence, the one that really sets me off). I'm just sick of spending money and getting screwed like that. Regularly.

The entire ability to "switch region codes" on DVD players in your computer is just a farce. If you have DVDs from more than 1 region, the how the heck is it a solution? Once you've changed it 5x, the DVD drive is trash.

Grrrrrr... 

[Edvard]

It's months later and this STILL ticks me off, but now there's more fuel to the fire:

Apple's Lala purchase appears to have been "insurance"
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/02/was-apples-lala-purchase-just-insurance.ars

According to the execs speaking to FT, Apple likened its long-rumored plans to bring iTunes to the cloud as "insurance." Instead of cannibalizing its own wildly successful download service by introducing a streaming equivalent, Apple said it plans to make it possible for existing iTunes users to store their music remotely. This would enable them to access their libraries from various devices without having to sync via USB.
Incidentally, this model is exactly what streaming music service Lala began offering in 2007...