MediaMemo throws more cold water on the idea that Apple shutting down Lala at the end of the month means a streaming iTunes.com is coming anytime soon, though they’re talking to labels right now about a “web-based” iTunes.
https://gizmodo.com/does-lalas-shut-down-mean-streaming-itunes-launch-5527957
Apple had been talking to labels about a “locker” service, kind of like what Lala does now, but you could stream songs you own to multiple devices, like your computer, iPhone and iPad—but labels think that should count as multiple uses, not a single use, so they’d want more money. End result, according to Peter Kafka’s sources, it went nowhere.
The more depressing moral of the story is that Apple’s got some deep negotiations with some very skittish labels to push through in order to make anything happen, so not only is nothing popping up in the wake of Lala, but we could be even further off from a reborn streaming, cloud-based iTunes than September, which is the time of year iTunes and iPods are traditionally revamped and refreshed. Depressing, to say the least. [MediaMemo]
