Sean just rocked my world when telling me about lala.com. Lala allows you to trade CDs that you no longer want with the one your heart desires. Once you are trade enabled simply list the CDs you own in your Have List and the CDs you’d like to receive in your Want List. When lala finds another member who is interested in one of your CDs, you will see a “Ship It” button next to the requested CD in your Have List. By clicking this button you will begin the process of agreeing to ship your CD to another Lala member. When Lala finds another member who is willing to send you a CD you want, you will be notified as soon as it’s on its way to you. How ingenious is this?
it’s been around for at least 3 years.
I used to be a member, traded CDs and all that, problem is, at first, you get a ton of CDs and the ratio of shipped vs. received was close.
As time goes by, you start shipping more CDs than you receive thus shifting the ratio, so in the end, I ended up ‘losing 5 CDs I sent vs 5 CDs I never received.
No matter how many requests to their support people, nothing was done so I decided to call it quots.
Jun 19th, 2008 / 11:07 am
I’ve used Lala for about 2 years (I think) and love it. It has a couple issues, but all in all it’s pretty awesome.
The first issue is that there’s no way to ensure that what you’re getting is good. I treat my CDs really really carefully, but obviously not everyone does. You’ll end up getting your share of scratched CDs or thoroughly busted artwork, and there’s no way to dictate that you want the back artwork as well.
There’s also the issue of artists whose albums don’t come in standard jewel cases. This makes it almost impossible to get their music through Lala if you’ve designated that you want artwork. I had one guy who was nice enough to send along a cardboard case in the mail, and I had another guy who took a box cutter to the digipak of a Nine Inch Nails album. Thoughtful, but kind of useless in the end.
The last problem is more of a lifestyle issue. As a college student who in the last couple years has spent significant time living in three different cities, it’s impossible for me to keep my CD collection with me at all times. Most of it is at my home in DC. Some of it is at school in Pittsburgh, and I didn’t bring any CDs to my internship in Boston. So no Lala for me this summer.
I don’t really have a problem with the ratio complaint. I think for me the number of CDs I’ve shipped has been about equal to the number that I’ve received, or at least close enough that I don’t care. Part of it is that if I’m sending off a CD, it’s something that I didn’t enjoy enough to keep. Whether or not you receive CDs in return depends on what’s on your request list. I’m pretty sure it all evens out in the end, but how quickly that happens is a matter of how obscure or popular your requests are.
All in all, I love it. It’s the most essential service for a music lover besides Last.fm.
Jun 19th, 2008 / 11:21 am
My cousin works for them as the main promo person I think. Pretty cool company.
Jun 19th, 2008 / 11:21 am
another great site i use that has a similar concept but for books is paperbackswap.com.
Jun 19th, 2008 / 12:14 pm
Reminds me of the “First Change Bank” -SNL Skit.
“So how do you guys make any money?”, “Volume!”
Jun 19th, 2008 / 3:35 pm
Don’t forget to checkout http://woxy.lala.com – best radio station on the net.
Jun 19th, 2008 / 4:02 pm
Bookmooch is another book swapping site.
http://www.bookmooch.com/
Jun 19th, 2008 / 10:27 pm
Do people still own CDs?
Jun 20th, 2008 / 4:17 am
I have the same experience as Hector. I’ve also been a member since ’06, and haven’t really gotten much sent to me in the past year, although I have over a 100 cd’s in my want list–granted, most of these aren’t mainstream artists. The first year I was loving it and trading heavily. So now I only send a CD when I get one, to keep the balance on my side.
Jun 20th, 2008 / 8:15 am
I used them for a while, a couple of years ago, but I got more than a couple of scratch CDs so I kind of stop using them. I still love the idea though…
Jun 23rd, 2008 / 2:35 am
Funktioniert leider nicht für User außerhalb der USA. Schade. Klingt spannend, was Lala da macht.
Jun 25th, 2008 / 7:01 am