RIP Lala.com. Cloud-based iTunes to replace it?

I hear ya. I'm a Mac user, too, and I tend to use iTunes more for the convenience than anything else.

I've been a Rhapsody subscriber since 2004. Can't see than changing anytime soon.

Damn. Going to miss this if it doesn't get replaced by something comparable.

Really love lala. I'm already bummed that I can't add new songs.

Let me mention that Rhapsody was just spun off into its own company, and has reduced their premium subscription to $9.99 a month.

For that, not only do you get unlimited streaming of several million tracks, but you can download as many tracks/playlists as you want (well, up to about 2,300 individual tracks) to your portable mp3 player for free. You can "authorize" one portable player, and up to three computers, to play them. For $15 a month, you can add authorization for two more portable devices.

Of course, you can't burn them to CD or otherwise monkey with the DRM (well, maybe some of you could), but at ten bucks a month, I thought the unlimited streaming was already a good deal (I use it pretty much all day at work). On top of that, to be able to toss anything I want onto my portable player and take it with me at no additional cost is a nice bit of gravy.

You can also purchase tracks and albums outright with no DRM; their prices tend to be pretty competitive with Amazon's digital downloads.

Offering up anything that ever came from RealNetworks as an alternative to iTunes is like saying "Man, that cold you have sucks. Try my gonorrhea!"

The only current subscription service I'd consider is Zune Pass, because at the end of every month, at least you own some music. Oh, and I guess eMusic, although that's a bit of a different animal.

Interesting. I've used Rhapsody for years now (as I say, listening probably a good 5-6 hours a day), never had any issues (apart from one glitchy upgrade a couple years back), either with the streaming, my purchases, or my new subscription downloads. But I'm sure there's another side to that.

In case I have some CD ripped from a friend, what will it do with that data?

Ditto all of this.

The fact that you can integrate your own personal music library with the subscription service is a huge, huge plus.

Since I'm a Mac user (have only been for around a year and a half), it's also a treat that I don't have to run Windows. The web-based player that runs with Firefox (my preference) and Safari works wonderfully on its own.

But the real incentive for me with Rhapsody is the availability of all of this music I can listen to at anytime. I can't think of a better way to get a good feel of a new album before my wallet takes the plunge.

They've usually got some nice early exclusives, too.

Well, that's one of the big questions, right? Once we move to a cloud-based model, there's potentially a lot less room for illegally-distributed music or, as we liked to call this in the old days, "sharing."

With convenience will come a considerable loss of flexibility (e.g., you just might get stuck having to get all of your music from the company with whom you set up an account), the displacement of ownership in favor of licensing*, and all kinds of stuff that favors Apple (and their competitors).

I liked that Lala wasn't too particular about which MP3s it would allow you to upload. I'm less convinced that iTunes will be as liberal with their policy, at least in the long-term.

* And if you think this isn't a big deal, just talk to anyone who's had to deal with academic databases - libraries spend unbelievable amounts of money on access to online-only scholarly journals through these databases, but, unlike in the old days of print resources, when the subscription runs out, many contracts stipulate that they lose all of that old content. Assuming iTunes uses the same model, it would be incredibly easy for them to maintain a monopoly indefinitely, because once you've amassed a collection of albums accessible only through your iTunes subscription, you're effectively hooked for life... unless you mind ditching all of that music you paid for.

Also known as the Kindle Conundrum.