WASHINGTON (AFP) – Apple Inc. has purchased online music company Lala Media Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, in a move it said may signal an expansion of its music strategy.

The newspaper said financial terms of the deal could not be learned.

Lala, which boasts a playlist of more than eight million tunes, hosts users' digital music collections on the Web, allowing access from varied locations in what it describes as "music in the clouds."

Lala also provides an application that scans Apple iTunes collections and then stocks their Lala account libraries with the same songs on the premise that they have already been purchased.

The songs cannot however be downloaded to a portable music player such as Apple's iPod.

The Journal said Apple may seek to adapt Lala's Web song offerings or incorporate its technology into a subscription service of some kind.

There was no immediate reply from Apple to AFP inquiries about the reported deal.

Source: Apple acquires ...