Hopes of an iTunes.com site launching at the end of the month, following the closure of Apple owned online music service Lala.com, have been dashed if "word on the street" is to be believed.

The news, according to Peter Kafka over at All things digital after talking to "industry sources all day", will be a blow to fans of iTunes looking to stream their music to different devices across the Web.

Many had hoped that the news over the weekend, that Lala would be closing its doors on 31 May, could signal a move by Apple to launch an online music service to rival the likes of Spotify and Rapsody in time for the company's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) at the beginning of June.

However, according to Kafka, conversations between Apple and the music industry are only just getting started with the usual "We want more money" cries coming from music execs keen to see multiple plays from a music track mean multiple pays.

Apple has yet to move towards a subscription based service like Napster or Microsoft's Zune HD offering, that would let music fans listen to as much as they want for a single flat monthly fee, instead opting to offer tracks at a set rate instead.

It's not all dead in the water however, sources tell the US publication that Apple approached the labels earlier this year about a cloud-based “locker” service, where users could stream songs they owned to multiple devices, and that those talks are still on-going.

Would you want a cloud-based music service from Apple or are you just happy to download your tracks to specific devices? Let us know in the comments below.