Lala.com Lets You Steal Music (Basically)

Lala.com is aiming to change the way we buy music online by doing to the Mp3 what the Mp3 did to the CD. The company, which initially launched as a CD trading website and which once pioneered a way to place music directly on to your iPod from the internet (it isnt allowed to doesn’t do that anymore), has shifted to a new model built around “web songs” and a catalogue consisting of licensed music from four major record labels and a variety of independents. In addition to providing the ability to purchase and download songs in standard digital formats, Lala.com will offer “web songs” for 10 cents a pop. What is a web song you ask? A web song is a digital version of a song that can only be accessed via the company’s website. Perfect if you don’t want to take up any space on your computer with all your music. Not so great if you want to take what you’ve bought with you. However, at that price, I can definitely see the appeal, especially if you spend a lot of time on a variety of different computers. One additional benefit is that hard drive failure, which are increasingly rare admittedly, will no longer cripple your library.