Apple Buys Lala

I wasn't expecting this... Could be cool. Maybe they'll approve the La La iPhone app now.Apple Strikes Deal to Buy the Music Start-Up Lala

By BRAD STONE
Published: December 4, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — In the most recent sign that Apple is looking at alternative ways for people to store and play their digital music, the company has agreed to buy Lala, a four-year-old

start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif., a person with knowledge of the deal said Friday.

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.

[From Apple to Buy the Music Start-Up Lala - NYTimes.com]