Apple Shuts Down Lala

As promised, Apple pulled the plug on the Lala music streaming service on May 31. Visitors to the Web site are now greeting with a notice that the service has been discontinued and a link for subscribers looking for credits and refunds.

Apple plans to issue iTunes Store credits to Lala subscribers with outstanding balances. Subscribers with less that US$10 left in their accounts will receive iTunes Store credits rounded up to the nearest dollar, and subscribers with over $10 left on their accounts will get credits rounded up to the nearest $5.

Refund checks are also available on request.

Apple purchased Lala at the end of 2009, and at the time analysts speculated that the deal was part of a bigger plan to host iTunes music through a cloud-based service instead of only on user’s hard drives.

The Lala Web site isn’t, however, offering any hints about what’s in store, and Apple hasn’t dropped any hints, either.