La La

Here's the next revolution in the internet and music. I'd buy your shares now if I were you. Launching July 6 2006, La La takes CD trading to a new level. Traditionally it's an activity enjoyed by avid live music enthusiasts trading legally dubious 'boots'of their favourity artists.

La La is so simple, but like e-bay and iTunes, a good idea. You scroll through the La La database, ticking albums you have and albums you'd like. You create a wanted list. Pretty soon the offers for your rare Wishbone Ash CD will fill your in-box, and as they know what you want, you may be tempted to trade. At $1.49 a go, you can afford to.

It's easy to create your lists using the iTunes plug in. When you play a song, then click the Visualizer, using the La La program the screen shows an album by the artist you’re playing, plus a host of similar albums. You can say if you have or want each album displayed, and as the song plays, more albums appear.

It pays to play fair. To get CDs you have to trade CDs. Like Flickr and MySpace, La La is building a real community amongst like minded music enthusiasts. It's better than iTunes in that it is album focused, and not restricted by the artists who have agreed to sign up: there's nothign stopping you trading your old Beatles or Led Zeppelin discs.

The site founders are music fans who respect the idea of paying artists for what they produce. They urge users to 'do the right thing' and not keep an iTunes copy on your Pod after you send the CD. They are taking the unprecendented step of donating 20% of their revenues to the artists. Find a second hand bookshop who does that.

It's only available in the US, if you live there and want to sign up click here. I'm sure it will be in Europe before too long, and when it is, I plan to be the first to sign up.