Web site offers way to legally share CDs

by Caleb Fort

Daily Lobo

Luke Nihlen, a UNM instructor, doesn't like iTunes, because the songs are hard to copy to CDs and MP3 players.

He doesn't want to get sued for stealing music with peer-to-peer systems like Kazaa or Bittorrent.

Instead, he gets about 10 CDs a week from the Web site Lala.com.

"It's a great little service," he said. "It seems like the most ethical and consumer-friendly way to trade music."

The Web site allows users to list albums they want to get rid of and what albums they want.

The company sends shipping kits to users so they can send CDs to other users.

For every CD a user sends, that user will get a CD from their

want list.

The site opened to the public

in June.

Bill Nguyen, the site's creator, said he started it because music stores and radio lack variety.

"I was looking at corporate radio and the big music stores like Wal-Mart, and I felt pretty bummed out, because it was all just the same music," he said. "I thought I should build a place where it would be easy to discover new music."

The site has about 1.8 million albums available, he said.

Users pay $1 for each CD traded on the site, plus 75 cents for

shipping.

Most of the music available on the site is alternative or independent music, said Justin Sung, spokesman for Lala.com.

The site gives 20 percent of the commission to the artists who made the CD.

Users don't get to pick what order they will get CDs from their want list.

"I don't really mind that," Nihlen said. "I get a little surprise

every time I get a CD in the mail."

Nihlen said he prefers getting a CD rather than downloading music to his computer.

"It's fun to get the album art," he said. "You get the actual CD, so you can play it in your car or whatever you want to with it."

Nguyen said it helps to have a large music collection before joining the site, but it isn't necessary.

"One of our first members really wanted to trade music, but she didn't have much of a collection," he said. "So, she five-finger discounted about 20 of her boyfriend's CDs and traded all of those."

Paul Hartsfield, owner of the music store Natural Sound, said he had never heard of the site, but it sounded like a fine idea.

"If you want to buy and sell used CDs, I guess that's one way you could do it," he said. "Really, it just seems like another way of doing what used-music stores do."

Hartsfield said the site could take away business from his store.

"Everything poses a threat to our business," he said. "The Internet in general poses a threat."

Nguyen said he doesn't want to take customers away from local stores.

"I think the local record store is an institution," he said. "We'd love to work with any mom and pop that wants to work with us."

Nguyen has worked out several deals that allow small music stores to offer music on the site.

"Sometimes on Lala, you can't get a brand new CD, because nobody wants to trade it yet," he said. "But if you can't trade for it, we can find it at a local record store, and they'll get some business

from that."