ilike

Two prominent technology writers are reporting vastly different stories about what Apple paid for music service Lala.

Peter Kafka, from The Wall Street Journal-owned blog All Things Digital, cited anonymous sources in a Monday report who said Apple plunked down $80 million for Lala. In a story published Tuesday, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch cited his own sources who disputed that price and said Lala was acquired for $17 million.

I wish I knew who was right, but my reporting came up with nothing solid. I will say that from the second I heard Kafka's number I was skeptical. After … Read more

Update 6:21 p.m. PST: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are reporting that Apple and Lala have struck a deal.

Apple acquired Lala on Friday, unlikely offering much for the streaming-music service.

Sources with knowledge of the discussion told me Apple is interested in bringing some of Lala's engineers onboard. According to the sources, Apple is impressed by Lala's technology. The 4-year-old Lala scans users' hard drives and creates a duplicate music library that they can access from Web-enabled devices. The company also sells songs for a dime each.

I posted a story on … Read more

How far we've come in such a short time. When I began this blog in 2007, finding a particular song online was an exercise in frustration. You could subscribe to an all-you-can-eat service like Rhapsody, but cheapskates and occasional music listeners either had to dig deep, engage with a questionably legal file-trading service, or settle for 30-second previews from iTunes or one of its Web-based competitors.

Since then, as readers of this blog know, dozens of sites offering free streaming music have emerged, from the dead-simple like Songerize and its successor Songite (enter a song title to play it … Read more

LOS ANGELES--Already the far-and-away leader in search, Google wants to be a big player in music discovery, too.

The search giant teamed up with News Corp.'s MySpace and streaming service Lala for the Wednesday debut of the new Google music search feature at the historic Capitol Records building in Hollywood. With the new music search, which had been internally code-named "OneBox" when news of the project broke earlier this month, search queries pertaining to something like a song, artist, lyrics, or album will bring up links to streaming songs from iLike and MySpace, as well as links … Read more

Microsoft's MSN is in preliminary talks with MySpace about using the social-networking site's music service, MySpace Music, to help power music offerings on the giant portal.

While sources at both companies cautioned that the talks are still early, Microsoft, which has its own music site that it programs with original and partnered content, execs are interested in goosing it.

That's because MSN Music consistently ranks substantially lower than other big online music properties in terms of traffic, while MySpace Music is always near the top.

Sources said Microsoft execs don't think they can do as good … Read more

Today's guest on The 404 Podcast is The Paper Raincoat, a local band of the "experimental rock ambition" genre, as Jeff calls it. Amber Rubarth and Alex Wong have both garnered musical recognition for their individual acts, but only recently came together to form The Paper Raincoat. The release of their first EP, Safe in the Sound, ushered in an international fan following and an impressive list of accomplishments, including the iTunes Indie Artist Spotlight. We're very excited to have them in the studio with us today, and they come bearing instruments for a live acoustic show!

As we talk to more bands, we're starting to understand the long process of dreaming, writing, playing, and touring with your music in the current music business scene. With outlets like Facebook, Myspace, Last.FM, and many more, artists can easily cast a wide net over an audience that would normally require a major label contract to reach. We talk with The Paper Raincoat about the naming of the band, their recording process, their fantastic DIY album art, and their upcoming tour.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, there are a million places to stream their music live, but the best thing you can do to show your support is to preorder a CD. One-hundred percent of the preorder money will go to printing the record, and you can pick between three packages, the highest of which lands you a limited edition CD, two signed posters, a T-shirt, and a custom USB wristband drive with a personalized video "thank you" and exclusive video content from the band. In the meantime, you can also follow the band on Twitter, attend their CD release party at Joe's Pub in NYC, and download their brand new song, "Right Angles."

LG announced that Orange in the U.K. will have the exclusive rights to sell the watch phone. But will anyone who isn't a d-bag want one? We discuss. We also get excited about RIM bringing full Flash to its phones. And Jason forgets how Tom's mind works.

MySpace buys iLike and turns off automusic play on profiles http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10313405-36.html http://www.appscout.com/2009/08/myspace_halts_instant_music_st.php

RIM planning on including full Flash and Silverlight … Read more

I don't have it confirmed yet, but it appears iLike is preparing to integrate its new music download store into its popular Facebook application sometime soon.

According to one music industry source, Facebook users may be able to start buying downloads from iLike's Facebook app as soon as this week. Seattle-based iLike and its new parent company MySpace aren't wasting anytime testing Facebook.

On Wednesday, MySpace announced that it had aquired iLike for an undisclosed amount of money. The news that the two sides were close to the deal had leaked days ago, so it wasn't … Read more

It's official: MySpace is acquiring iLike. Reporter Caroline McCarthy talks about what the deal means for the Facebook version of the music service and how it plays into MySpace's overall goals.

Also in today's podcast: A Missouri woman gets the dubious honor of being the first person charged with the felony of cyberbullying under the state's new law; European Commission looks into reports of exploding iPhones and iPod Touches; and the rest of today's top headlines.

Today's stories:

It's official: MySpace to acquire iLike

Missouri woman charged with cyberbullying

EU's exploding-iPhone investigation heats up… Read more