Cut Your Ribbon

A sad era in the world of music and business is upon us. It's a time in which we're seeing the dark side of the Apple empire and one can only fear that things are going to get worse from here.

In the midst sending authorities to raid blogger's homes to seize personal property (note to Apple: not cool!), Apple has found time to announce that it's killing off one of the the best music sharing and purchasing sites around.

After purchasing Lala in late 2009, Apple has now decided to completely take down the site and transfer all existing members' credits to iTunes. The reason? To bring Apple and iTunes into the ever-growing world of the cloud.

Not only was Lala great for purchasing music on the cheap (around $0.80 for an entire web-only album), but it was great for members to share new music and expose others to new artists and bands. Lala was also known for letting listeners preview a song or album in its entirety one time completely free (unlike iTunes' stingy 30 second preview policy). It was the place for music novices and lovers alike to discover and consume music easier and more afford-ably. And now what would earn you an entire record on Lala will transfer to equal about 80% of one song on iTunes.

Ultimately, it was Lala that made the sale ($80 million sounds nice, right?), but it's discouraging to see the big (brother?) guy buying out the little guy and crushing everything that was beautiful about it. But, only time will tell how Apple decides to take iTunes into the cloud. My only guess is that it won't be about the music or the consumer. It will be about Apple's bottom line.

Blogger, David Gerwitz even poses the question, "Has our young, idealistic Anakin been seduced by the dark side? Has Steve Jobs become Darth Vader? "