i signed up with lala.com today. i don't know anyone who uses it but i read about it and decided to test it out. it's a way to trade cds with people just like you instead of selling them. there is a small fee for trading though. i don't remember the name of the site, but years ago there was a similar trading site. there were no fees. you had a have/want list and negotiated trades with other people. they were 1:1 trades. you sent over just the cd and artwork and the other person did the same. you didn't send the jewel case to save on shipping costs. there were no associated fees for trading. it was ok but i didn't trade very much. it was just too hard to find someone with something i wanted and whom also wanted something i had.

lala is different. instead of 1:1 trades with a person, you're doing 1:1 trades with the entire lala community. it works like this: lala sends you a starter kit for mailing out your cds. again, you're not shipping jewel cases but sending the cd by itself is risky and prone to cracks and breaking. lala's starter kit has 5 clamshell cases for you to put the cd in that are light for shipping but sturdy enough to protect the cd from damage. they also send you pre-paid envelopes for shipping so it's like netflix in some regards. you can include the artwork if you wish but it is not a requirement. including the artwork may make the envelope heavier than the pre-paid amount. this is the part that scares me about lala. i love artwork! i don't want to send out a full cd with arwork to someone and receive only a cd in return with no artwork. also, due to the mailing procedures, you cannot ship multi-disc albums in one album. multi-disc sets are trading as individual discs. that is very unappealing to me. for that reason, i'm not trading any multi-discs on lala. i'll keep them up for sale on half.com. using both lala.com and half.com, i should be able to get rid of my unwanted cds while trying out new albums/artists at the same time.

to elaborate a little more on the trading bit, once you receive your cases and envelopes, you can look at your have list and see which ones people are requesting. you then click that you are shipping it and print out the address and affix it to the envelope. by indicating that you are shipping a cd, naturally that item will no longer show up as a request so that the person does not receive duplicates. then once they have received the cd you sent, then are supposed to indicate that they have received it. this is how you build trading credits. once you ship out trades, you are then allowed to receive trades. what you receive will not be limited to the persons you have sent out trades to. it will be open to the entire lala community. this way your selection options are much broader than the trading service i used years ago. for every cd you receive, you are charged $1.75. (the shipping is $0.75 and the trade has a fee of $1.00.) the trade fee helps to keep lala going of course but they also pay the artists! i've never heard of such a thing for used cds. i suppose that is cool and one way to keep the record industry happy and defer lawsuits. we'll see how this lala thing works out. *crosses fingers*