Apple's buyout of Lala is part of a potential strategy for granting access to iTunes directly through the web, sources said Wednesday night (subscription required). The deal, now said by the WSJ to be valued at $85 million, was originally thought to be a pure acquisition of talent but is now being used to reduce the dependency on the iTunes jukebox software for content and could permit listening to and managing purchases from a web browser. Apple could not only reach those who don't have access to their home collections but could put iTunes
