Andre Yoskowitz
1 Jun 2010 22:42
In April, just 5 months after purchasing the music streaming service, Apple decided to shut down Lala, likely signalling that it would be integrated into iTunes.com.
Apple gave current users until May 31st, but as is the problem with time, that date has come and gone and the service is now gone.
All users with remaining Lala credits will be given iTunes Store credit in the next 14 days and PCMag says "credits will be rounded up to the nearest dollar for refunds less than $10 and to the nearest $5 for refunds greater than $10."
If you don't care for iTunes, you can also request a check refund, which will sent out within the next two week as well.
Lala was a download and streaming music service that gave members a "digital locker" to store their music. What made the company different from iTunes, Amazon MP3, etc, is that Lala would also sell streaming rights to tracks for pennies, allowing for unlimited streaming online of the track, but no download.
Apple is now expected to open a Web-based iTunes that will be based on the Lala framework and will do much of the same things, such as a digital locker for "Web-only" versions of the tracks.