[finder] la la la, i can't hear you

I rarely get excited about internet music startups based on the description, but as soon as I heard about lala.com, I wanted to try it. People post lists of CDs they have to trade and lala.com matches them up; receiving a disc costs $1.50, which is not much more than you'd pay in postage if you did this on your own, and Lala sends you Netflix-style prepaid envelopes. It's in beta right now and nominally invite-only, but you can sign up here without having to prove you're special or anything.

On my Mac, the interface hangs in Safari, but works fine in Firefox. (I think I've been typing that sentence a lot lately.) It's very easy to use so far. Only two problems:

1. Their database doesn't know that (e.g.) "Grifters" and "The Grifters" are the same band. I assume that will change, but for now it may mean losing potential customers who don't realize it.

2. The shipping guidelines include "No liner notes." The site explains that this is because they might increase your package's weight beyond its prepaid postage, but that problem could be solved by saying "no booklets over 8 pages", or (better) "remove the booklet's front cover, and include only that and the back-tray card."

The back-tray card is essentially a fixed weight, and not including it means the recipient won't have a spine label if they put their new disc in a jewel case. AND it generally has the most useful portion of the liner notes' information. While not everyone cares, I would bet enough people will to matter.

I'm excited anyway.