lala.com has been reinvented

[GA Russell]

When lala.com got started over two years ago there were two threads about it:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...=lala\.com

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...amp;hl=lala.com

But I saw in the paper the day before yesterday that they have started a new website with the same name, so to speak. This is an online streaming and downloading with no DRM service with the support of the four majors and many indies. They have 6 million songs in their inventory.

You can listen once to any (and all) of the six million songs for free. If you want to hear it a second time, you pay ten cents and put the song in your "locker". Once you have paid your dime, you can listen to the song as often as you want forever (or until lala goes broke!).

If you want to, you can upload your own CDs into your locker for free.

If you want to download the song, you pay 79 cents in addition to the original 10 cents. Because there is no DRM, you are not limited as to how you make your copy of the song.

This is something that I expect I will be interested in. There are a number of albums I wouldn't object to paying a buck for, to listen on the computer whenever I want. And the fact that you can check out an entire album for free (one time) sounds good too.

The article in the paper quoted the lala guy as saying that the profitability of the site will depend on downloading. So if nobody wants to download, the site will go belly up.

[GA Russell]

I forgot to say that the first 50 songs in your locker are free, so that's a five dollar savings to get started.

I found two Cal Tjader albums I've wanted for a long time: Latin + Jazz = Cal Tjader and Monterey Concert. I plan to add those and probably one of Buddy Rich's PJ albums, and maybe a new Georgie Fame.

[GA Russell]

I see that Lala has both Groovadelphia and This is the Place!

Groovadelphia costs 80 cents! Actually, that seems to be the price for most albums which have eight or more songs.

I have found a few albums with major discounts. For example, the 2-CD best of compilation of Julie London has 50 songs and goes for $2.00.

So the 10 cents per song model seems to apply mostly to individual songs rather than albums.

There are also discounts for downloading albums. A typical album downloads for $7.49, which is Groovadelphia's price.

[GA Russell]

This week I used up the last of my free 50 songs, so it was time for me to spend some money.

You pay in advance, in the amount of 1, 5, 10 or 50 dollars. Remember, most albums go for 80 cents. So I put $5.00 on my credit card. They call that your "wallet", and they keep a running tally of what you have in it at the top of the page.

So tonight I "bought" Cal Tjader's Monterey Concerts.

Of the 50 free songs, 45 I chose were individual songs. The only album I got was Stan Getz's Sweet Rain, which I have been listening to quite a bit.

[GA Russell]

Lala got in 128 jazz releases this week. About 100 of them are from Denon, which is to say Savoy and Muse.

This includes the boxes of The Complete Savoy... of Charlie Parker (and Dial too), Lester Young, and Stan Getz.

[Aggie87]

I see that Lala has both Groovadelphia and This is the Place!

Groovadelphia costs 80 cents!

Is this band sanctioned?

[Niko]

mentioned this before, deezer has a beta version of their new website up for using here

http://www-v3.deezer.com

last time i looked they didn't have country restrictions yet (more accurately they had the french restrictions for anyone) and no registering so that you can stream the stuff of the four majors (their european programs including many ojcs) and many mostly french smaller companies as well... (edit to add: as often as you like)

Edited July 10, 2009 by Niko

[NIS]

I've just heard about lala.com on a couple of organissimo threads. I guess I subscribe to the "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" theory. Obviously it would be great to be able to listen to something before buying. So, what is the downside here? What am I missing?

[GA Russell]

NIS, the only downside I know of is that my ISP rations the service, so that I can only download so much per month. That includes streaming audio. So with my level of service I am unable to listen to lala as much as I would like.

[Niko]

I've just heard about lala.com on a couple of organissimo threads. I guess I subscribe to the "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" theory. Obviously it would be great to be able to listen to something before buying. So, what is the downside here? What am I missing?

there's this theory that the majors use these companies to press money out of venture capital funds (because these free music websites generate lots of traffic and are successful in a sense but don't make enough money to survive...)

so if you're concerned about venture capital funds...

[Drew Peacock]

I wonder if this model is sustainable given that they need to survive based on downloads. I can see many folks listening to the CD once to see if they like it and then looking to less expensive sites like eMusic to download the copy. My emusic subscription price per song is $0.41 which is half of what lala charges.

I would expect to hear commericals on the first listen as the initial sign that lala needs to increase its revenue stream.