• by March 8, 2006

There's a new online music service on the scene from a startup called La la Media Inc. The idea is to offer music fans full-length CDs for $1 by letting them trade discs, something that will help avoid the legal issues surrounding trading online tracks.

La la enables consumers to trade physical CDs they own for physical CDs they want. The firm has 1.8 million album titles available. Members trade the CDs in prepaid envelopes, a lot like Netflix, the mail-order DVD service, works.

La la executives maintain that the service is protected by an exception to the U.S. Copyright Act. They say that the owner of a CD can transfer a legally-acquired copy without permission or payment of additional royalties.

Members will pay $1 to La la for enabling the trade once they receive the disc from other members, plus a 49 cent shipping fee.

La la plans to set aside 20 percent of its trading revenue to recording artists and is in discussions with major music labels for digital music licenses.

The company also enables members to buy new physical CDs and hopes to eventually offer digital album downloads at retail prices. Offering downloads of digital songs isn't part of the plan.