Is there an Apple in the cloud?

So, there are some I mean rumors in the air… Or, I should say, rumors in the ‘clouds’-- Apple, which might have more clout than the current record industry, (Which I guess is another debate.) May provide a streaming music service, or accompany iTunes, so your content to an Apple cloud. No details have been announced yet, however, this may make for an interesting topic in the next week’s Apple event in SF on the 27th.

So, your iTunes library could be in the cloud? ITunes could be subscription based? Is this competition to Rhapsody? To Pandora? Who knows? But Apple’s acquisition of Lala could play into this somehow. This shows how fast this industry is moving. This will be interesting to see when, or if it’s announced on the 27th.

Stay tuned.

~G

Article courtesy from Greg Sandoval's Media Maverick Blog on CNET

Apple-Lala

Lala.com is an online source for cheap music, and the ability to check out new music. You could buy an mp3 for 10¢, have it stored in you account, or purchase a song for 80¢. I’ve purchased and downloaded couple of albums, on sale for $3.99. What a deal! I’ve preferred purchasing music on Lala, rather than iTunes. It’s a sleek interface, reasonable prices, and I just liked how it worked... I suppose I wasn’t the only one that enjoys Lala.com, since it looks like Apple will acquire them.

There have been a couple digital music sites that have shut down recently; i.e. Spiral Frog, & Ruckus. Also, iLike is, and soon Imeem, will be with MySpace Music. Also, LastFM is now with CBS.

Now this isn’t to say these digital music sites are all a failure. There are a number of factors, and I believe the economy is a big part of it, not the model itself.

Pandora, Spotify, Grooveshark are still out there, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the Lala acquisition will shake out.

~G

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Article courtesy CNET / Media Maverick Blog