2008 Woodie Awards
Cheap and legal: a new way to buy music
Courtney Flaherty
Issue date: 9/22/06 Section: Lifestyles
Peer-to-peer file sharing programs have been curtailing in-store record sales to an all-time low in recent years. People are always looking for new, cheap and usually illegal ways to obtain music. An upstart company out of California, however, has come up with yet another way to purchase music at a modest price, but this time it is all legal.
LaLa.com, which officially opened to the public on June 8, is an online music trading program. For a dollar and a penny, people can trade albums among each other, and everything is done online. When first signing on to LaLa, there are two different lists to fill out: a "want list" and a "have list." If someone lists a CD that is on your "want list," then that person gets a message asking if he or she would like to send that CD to you. The person with the wanted CD can choose to send or not to. If he or she chooses to send it, LaLa provides the sender with all the mailing material that is needed including stamped envelopes. The CD is then the other person's to keep and the person who sent the CD will then be eligible to receive a CD off his or her own "want list."
According to John Kuch, a LaLa employee, "You get what you put into LaLa." He said the system is set up to be an even trading organization; you have to give your CDs to others before you can get the CDs you want.
Disc quality, however, is also very important to LaLa. Kuch said that as soon as a CD is received, the customer sends feedback to LaLa saying if the CD was in good working condition. If a CD is broken or scratched, the customer does not pay for the CD and he or she can ask for another CD to be sent out from another trader.
Kuch said no one but LaLa employees can see the feedback, but what comes around goes around; If you send out bad CDs trying to scam someone, LaLa can terminate the account.
Kuch said that some of the reasons why LaLa was started was because the local record store was dying, and he and others at LaLa really relied on record stores as a "social hub" to meet people and discover new music. He said of himelf and his fellow coworkers, "(Music) enriches our lives in such a great way, and LaLa allows people to connect to each other."
LaLa.com, which officially opened to the public on June 8, is an online music trading program. For a dollar and a penny, people can trade albums among each other, and everything is done online. When first signing on to LaLa, there are two different lists to fill out: a "want list" and a "have list." If someone lists a CD that is on your "want list," then that person gets a message asking if he or she would like to send that CD to you. The person with the wanted CD can choose to send or not to. If he or she chooses to send it, LaLa provides the sender with all the mailing material that is needed including stamped envelopes. The CD is then the other person's to keep and the person who sent the CD will then be eligible to receive a CD off his or her own "want list."
According to John Kuch, a LaLa employee, "You get what you put into LaLa." He said the system is set up to be an even trading organization; you have to give your CDs to others before you can get the CDs you want.
Disc quality, however, is also very important to LaLa. Kuch said that as soon as a CD is received, the customer sends feedback to LaLa saying if the CD was in good working condition. If a CD is broken or scratched, the customer does not pay for the CD and he or she can ask for another CD to be sent out from another trader.
Kuch said no one but LaLa employees can see the feedback, but what comes around goes around; If you send out bad CDs trying to scam someone, LaLa can terminate the account.
Kuch said that some of the reasons why LaLa was started was because the local record store was dying, and he and others at LaLa really relied on record stores as a "social hub" to meet people and discover new music. He said of himelf and his fellow coworkers, "(Music) enriches our lives in such a great way, and LaLa allows people to connect to each other."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
Devin DiMattia
posted 9/25/06 @ 2:47 PM EST
While file-sharing software has certainly changed the way we listen to music, I've always had a fondness for physical CDs. The packaging, the album art, the knowledge that you are listening to the exact version of an album the artist wants you to hear. (Continued…)
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