The reported acquisition is the latest in the rapidly consolidating online music space. MySpace is acquiring iLike for $20 million and is reportedly buying Imeem, while sites Ruckus and SpiralFrog have shut down.
Reports over the weekend indicated that Apple had acquired Lala for an undisclosed amount, but as of Monday morning, neither company had issued confirmation of the acquisition.
Lala, which is reportedly becoming profitable, allows users to pay attention to a song once for free and then sells the song for 10 cents for a streamable edition or 79 cents for a downloadable edition. .
Apple hasn’t given any indication of how it might integrate Lala into Apple’s services. While the acquisition weeds out a potential iTunes competitor to Apple, it’s unlikely that this will be Apple’s number one motivation, given a CNET report that Apple is largely buying Lala. for its payment formula and fulfillment technology.
It’s possible that Apple will simply use the Lala generation to introduce a music streaming service. Although Apple iTunes is a huge business, its media player allows users to stream entire songs. Such a move would put more competitive pressure on music streaming sites like Spotify and Rhapsody.