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"Lala started out as a CD-swapping service, which didn't really work all that well. Now, they've switched to a completely new business model, which can best be described as a cross between Pandora and iTunes. You can buy albums, that's the standard part of any online music shop. You can also stream all of the songs from Lala's library once. But, this is the catch: if you purchase a song for mere 10 cents, you can listen to it indefinitely on Lala's web radio. At the same time, they have no advertising on the site whatsoever. \nI've read most of the coverage of Lala's new approach to selling music and most of it is very positive. And, while I do agree that it's intelligent, when I think about the big picture, it wakes the Richard Stallman in me. \n10 cents for a song is not expensive, true. But you need to consider what exactly you're buying here. You're buying the rights to listen one song of dubious sound quality on one online service. I know every company's dream is to lock you inside its own magic circle and create a service so good (read: iTunes) that people willingly accept a little less freedom when it comes to what exactly they can do with what they've purchased. But from my perspective, it sucks. \nI like to have cover art, beautiful packaging, fantastic sound and the freedom to do whatever I want with the music I've purchased. I want to be able to listen to it on my computer, my MP3 player (notice that I'm not using the word iPod), my Hi-Fi stereo system. \nPlus, the internet might (and probably will) be a vastly different landscape 5, 10, and 15 years from now. Why should I pay for something that might turn out to be useless or obsolete in a few years time? People used to buy DRM'd music; what can they do with that music now (without resorting to hacking it DRM-free)? \nHere's an example. Cnet complains about not being online all the time; you cannot access Lala from a plane or an underground train. A minor complaint, if you ask me; and Cnet's Greg Sandoval immediately counters it himself, quoting Lala's coufounder, Bill Nguyen: \"Will you ever (in the future) use an electronic device if it's not connected or doesn't have a browser,\" he asks. He has a point. But, connecting to the net from your mobile device carries an additional price tag. Currently, it's not cheap at all; in fact, for any ardent music listener who's on the move a lot, listening to Lala from a mobile device would be a very expensive affair. It might get better in the future, but one has to consider exactly how many times he/she's going to pay for the same thing. \nLala's idea might be good, and I might be an old grudge, but I still think that any business model that somehow restricts your rights to do whatever you want with the music you've legally purchased is, well, too restrictive. \n*Update: write this down as another restriction: I've forgotten to mention that Lala is currently available only to people in the US. So much for being able to play music \"anywhere on the web.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/10/21/lala/>