After five years, the Lala cloud-based music service will finally close its doors on May 31st, according to new owners Apple Inc.

Rumors have been swirling since Apples acquisition of the Lala service: Will iTunes be heading to the cloud? We still dont have those answers, but one more piece of the puzzle has now fallen into place. According to TechCrunch, the Lala.com music service will be shutting down on May 31st -- no more new users are being accepted, and existing users will only be able to log in for another month.

But Apple wont be leaving those faithful (and paying) Lala.com users in the dust. According to an e-mail sent to users, you will receive a credit in the amount of your Lala web song purchases for use on Apples iTunes Store. If you purchased and downloaded MP3 songs from Lala, those songs will continue to play as part of your local music library.

The e-mail continues: Remaining wallet balances and unredeemed gift cards will be converted to iTunes Store credit (or can be refunded upon request). Gift cards can be redeemed on Lala until May 31st.

Doesnt sound like too bad of a deal for the Lala faithful. Now the real question is, what might Apple have in mind for the service when the lights go out? Its widely assumed that Apple will leverage the acquisition to move the iTunes service further into the cloud, which most industry insiders feel is inevitable.

The timing itself could be fortuitous: As TechCrunch notes, Apples Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off June 7th in San Francisco -- only a week after the doors close forever on Lala. You be the judge