La la la la means I love you

A while back - before they started to pour all their resources into whatever the hell it is they think they're doing - the RIAA got annoyed by the idea of people selling second hand records. "Think of us ("the artists")" they cried, "we're not making anything from these sales." As if that was unusual in second hand circles, like when you buy a pair of dead man's trousers from Oxfam, Marks and Spencer get a cut because they'd sold them originally a few years before.

Then, someone said they'd seen a ten year-old humming a song in the street without a licence and the RIAA all ran off to take the kid's lunch money and forgot the beef.

However, it is an interesting question: is there a way of trading second hand music which could reward the artist who originally made the record?

Lala records thinks there is; hosting a low-price CD swap site which gives 20 per cent of its admin fee to the artists whose records are swapped. Not, you'll note, the labels. If the artist is dead, or doesn't claim their cut, the money goes to a foundation which provides musicians with health benefits.

It's an interesting idea, and seems to be hugely music-positive: people who make music get some money from the on-passing of their work; people who like music get to swap and share.

It's US-only right now, but hopes to roll worldwide at some point.

Via Largehearted Boy

music lala