iTunes.com likely the brainchild of the December 2009 acquisition

May 4, 2010 08:02 GMT  ·  By

It has been confirmed that Lala.com, an online music service acquired by Apple in 2009, is now shutting down, a move fueling speculation that the Mac maker is on track to launching its own web-based music-streaming service – iTunes.com. Lala itself has announced the closure on its website, saying it would shut down on May 31st. Lala has also stopped accepting new users as of now.

In December last year, rumors broke out that Apple was acquiring Palo Alto startup Lala, a service partially resembling iTunes (in the way users purchase music), but instead of downloading tracks, users would stream them to their Internet-capable devices for just ten cents a track. The acquisition occurred later, with Apple spokesperson Steve Downling confirming the move. At the time, Downling told The New York Times that, “[Apple] buys smaller technology companies all the time, and we generally do not comment on our purpose or plans.” Apple had previously issued a similar statement when acquiring P.A. Semi, a startup chip designer.

Now, Lala has posted the following message on its website: “Lala is shutting down. The Lala service will be shut down on May 31st, 2010. Unfortunately, we are no longer accepting new users.” Members can still utilize the service through May 31st, 2010, Lala says. For more details, registered users must log in.

Industry watchers are expecting Apple to launch a web-based version of iTunes, allowing users to listen to music without having to download, install or employ the specialized iTunes software on a Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod touch, etc. The songs would be stored in a “cloud” and would be accessible anywhere, as long as there’s an Internet connection.

Lala enabled its subscribes to upload their music libraries and access the songs through a Web browser on an array of devices. Subscribers could opt to buy “web songs” just ten cents each, while the entire library of songs tallied at more than seven million at the time of their acquisition by Apple.