Lala Launches New Purchasing Options, Widget

Music streaming/purchasing hub Lala has relaunched with a new "virtual ownership" model that allows the site to operate without the support of ads or monthly fees. The new version allows Lala users to stream any song or album once for free, after which the consumer will have the option of unlimited streams of the song for 10 cents or to purchase a DRM-free MP3 of the track for 89 cents. If you opt for a stream purchase but later decide to buy the MP3, the 10 cents will be credited to the purchase and the song will only cost 79 cents. Lala, which launched in 2006 as a CD trading site before segueing into online music distribution, has the support of all four majors and a boatload of indie labels. On the site, users upload their music libraries into Lala's own six million-song catalog, allowing for universal access to their own collections. The site also boasts a widget called Forecast, which allows users to put four songs on their blogs or Facebook pages, as well as share songs and play lists with other users.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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