Apple puts the kibosh on Lala

On Friday, Lala, the music streaming service acquired by Apple back in December for a reported $85 million, announced it was shutting its doors. Existing Lala members will still be able to use the site through May 31.

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When Apple purchased the startup, which allowed users to stream tracks for ten cents apiece (or a whole album for a dollar), speculation was rampant that Apple’s intention was not to make the financially shaky service profitable, but rather to acquire the minds and experience of the folks behind the site. And now, it appears that speculation was correct: with the eradication of Lala, Apple can integrate that site’s streaming technology into its own iTunes service, possibly allowing for cheap or free streaming of select full tracks (as it stands, iTunes only offers brief snippets to stream) to encourage the purchase of an entire song or album.

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But how will Apple make money off of the same technology that Lala couldn’t?