Posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 by Shachar Pessis
Lala – If consuming music is what you’re after, these days there are two major alternatives (excluding buying CD’s): 1. Purchasing songs online in mp3 format (averaging around $0.99 per song) and downloading them to your portable device or computer, and 2. Listening to free online streaming music (more common) through your web browser. The latter option is what we call ‘web radio’ and since this is so prevalent in the Internet arena, AllMyFaves has a designated Web Radio Faveline. Although this is a wonderful and useful option, web radio sites have their downsides; some of these sites lack a commendable collection of songs/artists, others, without advanced notice, stop featuring a certain song that was previously offered (due to licensing infringement, I’m sure). Lala offers a unique web radio service that is free of all these annoying glitches but that’s why it isn’t free. Paying users enjoy limitless listening with the assurance that all featured music and artists are there to stay. How does it work? Lala’s catalog includes over 6 million songs (provided by EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group) which users can play once for free before buying. And for as little as 10 cents, users can buy a web song – a new product that gives users the ability to play the song as often as they choose from their web collection. Sounds like an interesting alternative, right? After all, whether we like it or not, the majority of the working population spends many hours in front of a screen, using one browser or another. Will Lala make it? I think they truly have an interesting business model, and ten cents is indeed fair. Besides, at the rate free music streaming sites are loosing portions of their music database, Lala will be able to use this as leverage and see continued growth and expansion. Until then, Please Don’t Stop the Music.
