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Computing News | Music Sharing Still Divisive
Posted by: Tweaker
Date added: 09:23 Wednesday, 17th May 2006 GMT
Source: LA Times News
A new website makes it easy for music fans to trade actual CDs by mail. Recording executives say the operation enables piracy and could hurt sales.
Depending on whom you ask, Lala.com a new website that helps song lovers trade entire compact discs for less than the cost of a single iTunes video download is either the music industry's salvation or yet another nail in its coffin.
Those in the pro-Lala camp like to tell the story of its founder, Bill Nguyen, a Silicon Valley wunderkind who sold a previous start-up for $850 million and set out to use some of the proceeds to help music aficionados like himself discover new tunes. He and a few superstar programmers spent a year and more than $1 million designing an online community where users can list the CDs they own and those they want.
Lala.com, which was launched last month, pairs those who want with those who have and facilitates a trade, collecting $1.49 per disc.
That fee doesn't quite cover Lala.com's costs. But executives think that eventually the company will earn big profits, both by selling CDs at retail prices and by selling the demographic details it gathers about its users to record labels.
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