Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

TechCrunch mentions the launch of Lala, a new streaming music service:

The new LaLa is aimed squarely at iTunes. Users can listen to full songs as often as they like. They can buy the physical CD with a couple of clicks, or they can (in a week or so) download the song. The songs are DRM-free, but are downloaded directly to the iPod. The only way for a user to then remove them is to hack the iPod. So while the songs do not contain DRM, the user is effectively barred from consuming the song cross-platform. The company says that future versions of the service will allow CD burning as well.

Prices for song downloads will be $0.99, the company says, but will vary for high-use users. If you listen to a lot of music on LaLa and participate in the community, song prices will be lower.

Now it is wonderful that I can listen to streaming music for free,but I listen to my music using iTunes on my laptop as well as my iPod. If the songs still cost 99 cents then I might as well buy them at iTunes. A couple of clicks at Lala (why not just one "Buy Me" click?) for something that I can only use on my iPod may be simple, but leaves me with a song I can only use in one place.

I wonder how long it would take to do a mashup of Lala and iTunes so that I can listen at one place and buy at another?