Lala Review – Website Review of Lala.com
Lala.com is a place to sample, share and purchase music on the internet.
Here are the highlights:
- Over 6 million songs to choose from, all properly licensed.
- 50 free song credits for signing up with 5 additional credits for each referral (limit 50)
- Access to full samples of each song (you can only sample a song for free once!)
- Ability to sync your computers library with Lala, virtually giving you a free portable library
- Social Networking – write blurbs, add friends, share music, get suggestions, etc
- Purchase songs for online listening for 10 cents per track
- Purchase songs for download for 89 cents per track
- Download format is MP3; playable on any computer or portable music device
How’s the Usability?
Lala is easy to use. The site has simple, intuitive navigation and the software that you use to sync your library is fool-proof. I had no problems finding anything that I needed and the site is darn fast. I had over 300 songs synced and ready to go in under 10 minutes with a 1mbps connection. The songs that weren’t in the Lala database were uploaded in a reasonable amount of time. I’m not sure if others can access them, but I’d be down with that.
This article is not about my taste in music.
Anyhow, now I can listen to songs I bought from Amazon, iTunes or burned from my personal CD collection anywhere I want. (Like @ work, which is going to save me both time with flash drives and money on CD-Rs) This feature alone made it worth the minimal effort required to sign up.
6 Million Songs, Huh?
Yep, and a good variety of ‘em, too. I searched for artists ranging from Rihanna to Elliott Smith and was greeted by tons of songs, artist bios and a gaggle of widgets along the way. It might be worth noting that this site performs really well with modern college/indie/whatever music. Crystal Castles, Vampire Weekend, Voxtrot and many more are available with the same ease as T-Pain and Hank Williams.
This is what happens when you do a search on Lala
You can view similar artists, check artist rankings, check playlists in which the artist is featured, etc. Of course, you can also sample and add particular songs or albums for either unlimited online listening or download purposes.
The Short-N-Skinny
I like it. The features are great, it’s easy to use, I’m keeping it. Want to check it out? Sign up for a free account here.
Here’s a playlist I made really quickly: