Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
Lala's business model of selling and hosting digital music was a complete abhorrence to an innovative music startup -- named Lala. When the site launched, it was a CD trading service that held up the integrity of the album and the virtues of physical content ownership in an online music market of single-track downloads and subscription-based music rentals. To its trade-by-mail CD service, Lala added CD sales, playlist creation, and for a sh
