Lala.com Launches CD Trading Site That Will Compensate Artists

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 8, 2006 - 7:01am.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Lala.com, a site that facilitates CD trading between members through the mail, on Thursday announced the official launch of its service. The site claims a catalog of 1.8 million album titles available from its members, who pay Lala.com $1.49 for each CD they receive from another member. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Lala.com said it has established a charitable foundation for musicians -- the Z Foundation -- to which it will voluntarily contribute 20% of its CD trading revenue to compensate artists. The company estimates monthly contributions of between $10,000 and $50,000 to the foundation, which will focus on providing health and dental care to working musicians. To qualify, a musician is defined as any individual who has performed live or on a recorded release in the last year, and whose music-related income accounts for more than half of total income. Lala.com founder Bill Nguyen told Reuters that record labels have had mixed reactions to the service. "One label thought it would help them to know their customers for the first time," Nguyen told Reuters. "But others' view of us is as the devil, more like peer-to-peer services."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060608/sfth049.html?.v=61
http://tinyurl.com/o9q5u (Reuters)
http://www.lala.com/z