La-la

I'm in a housecleaning, de-cluttering mood, and I've just discovered lala.com.

They have over 1.8 million CD titles to choose from, and you can trade-in your old CDs for CDs you really want for only $1 each. (If you are desperate, you can also buy new CDs from their store.) Signing up is free.

I listed one pile of old CDs (see below), and within five minutes, I made my first trade!

Unfortunately, they do not have all the artists I am looking for in their database, and I need to figure out how to alert them to Jonathan Coulton's Thing a Week, as well as the existence of Jim Geezil.

This seems to me the kind of sustainable business that Steph recently blogged about.

Lala.com also reports that it has established the 'Z' Foundation, inspired by Charlie Chaplin's visionary creation of the Motion Picture Relief Fund and United Artists:

The "Z" Foundation is a non-profit that seeks to unite working musicians to address the economic challenges they face. Like Chaplin's endeavors to assist and empower entertainment industry workers nearly a century ago, the "Z" Foundation is a collaborative effort. The "Z" Foundation will initially be funded with monthly contributions of between $10,000 and $50,000 from lala.com and its members (actual amounts may vary based on CD trading volume on lala.com.) The "Z" Foundation will focus on providing health and dental care that is often inaccessible to working musicians.

In addition, For the first time, musicians will receive economic support directly from their fans. Each time a lala.com member trades a CD from a 1.8 million-title catalog with another member, 20% of the trading revenue will be contributed to performing artists. This new model for direct contributions is enabled by lala.com's social accounting technology.

Click here to get any of my CDs for $1