If I haven't had my coffee then I don't have anything good to say… That doesn't mean I'll be quiet.
Product Manager. New to San Francisco.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
I enjoy music. I’ll admit it, I cannot rattle off song names, bands, or artists from the last 25 years, but I know what I like. My favorite is that one that goes like do doo da dat dat and that other Desperado song, sung by Linda Ronstadt… not the one by that flying bird group. Oh and I like Bonnie Raitt’s I Can’t Make You Love Me.
My sad musical taste aside, I loved using the Lala music service that closed at the end of May. I’d call myself a moderate user. My iTunes library was synced with the service, so I had access to all of my music while away from my personal computer. To tell you the truth, that was the key selling point for me. From there I could connect with other users with different tastes. I found myself listening and discovering more music then at any other point in my life. Most of this discovery was spurred by the social features integrated with Lala. Apple’s purchase and eventual closure of the service left many wondering what is next. It is easy to assume that Apple will introduce their own version of Lala but in what timeframe and with what revenue model?
We many need to wait only a few days for Steve Jobs to announce a new Lala-esque service during his keynote on June 6th. In the meantime (and over the last month since the closing was announced) I have had an opportunity to explore the other options in the online music space. There are quite a few good services: Mog, Rhapsody, Pandora, etc. These sites all offer some free or trial experience alongside their paid subscription plans. Lala took this model a step further and offered free access online to any song I had in my iTunes library. They gave me 50 credits to add songs to my online library, and once those were exhausted I added real money into the system. At that time I never would have paid a monthly fee to use Lala. Now that the product is gone, I realize that it successfully created a need where one previously had not existed. Because I have had easy access to an essentially unlimited collection of music, I now need it. I am willing to shell out $5 per month for similar access.
Now that I’m willing to pay a minimal monthly fee for access to music online, I’ve joined Mog and plan to try Rhapsody. Why not? These services could not really compete against Lala when the site offered a free play of every song in their collection and unlimited plays of any song that I already own (legally or illegally). In Lala’s absence, these sites have had an incredible opportunity to attract many new users to their services. The question is: Have they been spending the money needed to grab the attention of these listeners? In short, no. I’ve seen no PPC bids on searches like lala shutting down, lala closing or even just Lala. I’ve seen no ads on Facebook or PR placement in traditional media. A solid month and 4 days of opportunity have passed. Apple will release an option that will undoubtably have a better user experience then Mog and Rhapsody. That UX and Apple brand will attract users. Sure other companies will be able to lure music lovers that don’t want to pay into Apple’s corporate pocketbook, but those companies will merely survive, not succeed.
For now I’ll get my Mog on.
