John Clarke takes issue with my diss of CD-trading service LaLa:

Seems to me to be a good way to get around copyright infringment problems in the post-Napster age. Somebody could set up a free site overnight, but how are they going to pay for the bandwidth if it gets popular? For now, I’ll gladly pay a buck for a CD and avoid paying $10 to download it from Itunes or grabbing selected songs for free on various websites.

The article you linked mentions this is just a copy of a DVD trading service and its likelyhood to fail because everyone wants to keep their best movies and trade the crap. I’d argue that trading music is totally different and this site will work for a couple of reasons. A.) One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. For example, I posted a CD I thought was total garbage --- an album from an obscure power pop band called Splitsville. A minute after I posted it, someone wanted it. In exchange, I got Josh Rouse’s first album. I win and so does the guy that wants my castoff. B). With the proliferation of Ipods and CD burners, does anyone really need to own CDs any longer? I found myself looking through my collection, thinking I could easily get rid of more than half of it. What I’m likely to keep would only be for sentimental reasons --- i.e. New Order’s Technique album, a CD that spent a ton of time in my car during college. Everything else is on my computer --- if I want the album again, I’ll just burn it.

Go lala.

The Echo Chamber is a place for our readers to speak their minds. You can respond to this post in the comments, or send us your opinion on another topic.