"Lala, unlike Apple’s iTunes, lets users play the music they own from the Web -- or in tech industry parlance, from the cloud," says the Times. "If Apple introduces its own cloud-based streaming music service, it would let people skip having to download music they buy or synchronize their music collection between their computers and mobile devices. A person’s music library would always be available on the Web and accessible on a PC, smartphone or other Web-connected mobile device."

In September, Lala unveiled "the first and only free fully licensed service to instantly provide anywhere web access to an existing music library such as iTunes." It replaces "the outdated approach" of uploading MP3 files from a computer, says Lala CEO Geoff Ralstson. He says Lala has introduced a licensed technology to instantly match songs from consumers’ personal music libraries with the Web-based catalog on lala.com.

You can sample any full song or complete album for free. You can add songs to a Web collection for only 10 cents, and buy DRM-free MP3 downloads for as low as an additional 79 cents.

Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari browsers on both Windows and Mac OS are supported. All four major labels including EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have agreements with Lala to stream and sell music.