The official LaLa.com Thread

I don't have any just the real thing.

Just a heads-up: Lala is implementing a promo policy this coming Friday. Promos, some sort of promos, will be OK to trade. The default will set your account to accept promos. They haven't defined what constitutes a promo yet, but I believe lala is going to allow any sort of promo as long as it's not a CDR. Meaning that if the retail version is 13 tracks and there's a promo out there with 10 tracks, lala will allow that to go through, similar to their stupid rule on reissues versus originals. I could be wrong, but I think this is how it will go.

I'm not against promos, I've accepted many, but on Thursday I am putting my account on vacation mode. That way nothing gets sent to me in the interim, while I'm sleeping or whatever. I'm going to set it to NO PROMOS once the upgrade happens, come off vacation mode, and then read the policy and see how others experience things first. I suggest everyone else do the same.

Also, if lala makes this setting like the artwork setting, I'm done. I'll try SwapaCD. The way the artwork policy is you can select "COVER ART REQUIRED," but if someone send you just a CD, you have to pay for it if it plays. If I have "NO PROMOS" checked and someone sends me a promo and lala expects me to pay for it, I'm out. No way. We'll be getting crap promo after crap promo all the time. I'm not interested.

Anyway, just a warning; go into vacation mode Thursday before they change the rules.

Eyesore wrote:

Anyway, just a warning; go into vacation mode Thursday before they change the rules.

I've been in vacation mode for a couple of months anyway... and I have no idea when (or if) I'll be back...

Fat Freddy wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Anyway, just a warning; go into vacation mode Thursday before they change the rules.

I've been in vacation mode for a couple of months anyway... and I have no idea when (or if) I'll be back...

Why?

I only get like 5 cds a month anymore so it's no big deal with me....

what is swapacd?

swapacd.com is a cd trading site similar to lala.

Eyesore wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Anyway, just a warning; go into vacation mode Thursday before they change the rules.

I've been in vacation mode for a couple of months anyway... and I have no idea when (or if) I'll be back...

Why?

Nothing major...just that around the beginning of this year my pool of trade bait had dwindled away to almost nothing, and what little I had left was getting no bites... I have been meaning to do some garage sale/thrift shop hunting for CDs to restock my trade list but I simply haven't had the time...

Fat Freddy wrote:

Nothing major...just that around the beginning of this year my pool of trade bait had dwindled away to almost nothing, and what little I had left was getting no bites... I have been meaning to do some garage sale/thrift shop hunting for CDs to restock my trade list but I simply haven't had the time...

So you're not owed any CDs, then?

And Shiney, SwapaCD is another trading site that addresses many issues lala disregards, like complete artwork and such. I actually created an account, listed all my Haves and often get request e-mails, but I'm just kind of reluctant to add yet another way to get CDs to my already ridiculous habit. Haha. They're a bit more expensive in that you pay like $0.50 per trade, but also have to foot the shipping bill. They don't send you prepaid envelopes. I think I'm going to give it a go soon, though.

Eyesore wrote:

So you're not owed any CDs, then?

To be honest, I haven't checked in on my Lala account in awhile so I'm not really sure... I think I was green-lighted to receive when I put it on vacation mode, but it's been a while... maybe I oughta go back over there, take myself off, and see how quickly I get some notifications that things are being sent to me...

Lala hasn't implemented their promo policy yet. Shocker! Haha. This company is like a band that speaks too soon. You ever know those bands that are always talking about an upcoming EP, or single, or box set, or something cool, and then it never happens because they were basically speaking about ideas, not concrete plans? Well, that's lala. Always making promises and then doing something different. The promo policy was supposed to be in place on the 27th, but it's not been done yet.

However, they did just add a feature that allows direct trading. Meaning I can know ship to someone directly if they have a CD on their Wants that I have on my Haves, and vice versa. Pretty cool upgrade.

Guess I'll bump this. Lala decided not to allow promos to be traded (openly). They did however start a feature called Direct Ship, currently available only to beta testers and those who request the feature. Direct Ship essentially means I go to your page, click a little green icon above your wants, then click a small link to the right that says HAVES and it'll show me all the CDs I have that you want, and I can click a SHIP IT button. It's a good feature that has unfortunately made people start only doing 1:1 trades, meaning even if they have a ship bubble for a CD, they won't ship it out blindly, they try and acquire a CD of their choosing from someone else in trade for their CD. This is a good feature, but some people are placing too much value on CDs this way. Or they're on the forum pimping CDs, but refuse to send it to you because you have nothing they want. It's pretty annoying, especially since two people that do it all the time won't send me anything, even though I've sent them CDs before.

I've done a few trades this way and it's gotten me some good stuff—Las Cruces, the latest Heaven And Hell double live album—but people now have created a separate trade pool. They have Haves, Wants, and Direct Ship Only albums. That's crap, in my opinion. But a good feature for those of us looking to engineer trades. Alec (209) can enable it if you blurb him.

Also, lala just changed the interface again. Not much has changed, just the look and font. The only thing that kind of sucks is the ship "bubble" is gone, now you see a req: 3 to the far right, and only the number bring you to the CDs Requested page. Can be a pain to click, but I think they'll be changing this soon, as a million people complained.

Anyway, right now I've got the following on the way:

Vent by Caliban
The Split Program by Caliban/Heaven Shall Burn
The Paranormal Humidor by Somnambulist
Mirror, Mirror by Twiztid
Run For Cover by Pro-Pain
A Cruel World by Bloodsimple
Uneasy Listening Vol. 2 by HIM
Stash by Cypress Hill

Thanks for the info Eyesore...I'm still hanging on to LALA...it annoys me but I've employed your art request system and so far so good....we'll see.....

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Thanks for the info Eyesore...I'm still hanging on to LALA...it annoys me but I've employed your art request system and so far so good....we'll see.....

You just have to sound non-threatening, non-demanding and friendly to these people. Some users have admitted that they don't include back art out of spite if people demand it or have PLEASE INCLUDE BACK ART, or something similar, in the second line of their address. It's stupid, but so are people. So if you have that message in your address, remove it now! Haha.

I just got a promo of Annihilator - Schizo Deluxe and I am trying to decide if I want to accept it or not.

If I get promos I keep them but WILL NOT give credit to the sender since they are breaking a clear and easy to understand rule...

I am leaning towards that. I have sent promos a couple of times, but the CDs themselves had no promo marking, and I tagged them as having no artwork, and only sent them to people accepting CDs with no artwork. This has a black and white, single sided front insert with promo clearly marked on it.

AchrisK wrote:

I am leaning towards that. I have sent promos a couple of times, but the CDs themselves had no promo marking, and I tagged them as having no artwork, and only sent them to people accepting CDs with no artwork. This has a black and white, single sided front insert with promo clearly marked on it.

I wouldn't accept that piece of crap.

*POST DELETED*

nevermind, I figured it out!

There should be a TRADE tab at the top somewhere.

Yeah, LaLa is obviously downplaying the whole trade thing, which sucks.

AchrisK wrote:

There should be a TRADE tab at the top somewhere.

Yeah, LaLa is obviously downplaying the whole trade thing, which sucks.

Yeah, I found a back door into the trading site by just googling "lala cd trading". The main page lists absolutely nothing about trading at all.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Thanks for the info Eyesore...I'm still hanging on to LALA...it annoys me but I've employed your art request system and so far so good....we'll see.....

I don't think that rule is in place anymore. I remember reading back some time ago that they were going to allow trading of promos, but not selling of them, since that is illegal.

ult

scottmitchell74 wrote:

If I get promos I keep them but WILL NOT give credit to the sender since they are breaking a clear and easy to understand rule...

This is something I completely disagree with. If you keep it, pay for it. If someone sends me a promo and it's just like the retail version, I won't complain. However, I've received promos in cardboard sleeves, I got one with 99 tracks (13 songs broken down into 99), and I got one once where the art was mutilated in an attempt to cover that it was a promo. Those got marked as such.

But just because people are sending promos against the rules shouldn't automatically get them ding'd, especially since the shipping of promos is largely encouraged by the lala users. Also, if you're marking CDs as promos and then taking them off your Want lists, you can be banned for that.

AchrisK wrote:

I am leaning towards that. I have sent promos a couple of times, but the CDs themselves had no promo marking, and I tagged them as having no artwork, and only sent them to people accepting CDs with no artwork. This has a black and white, single sided front insert with promo clearly marked on it.

And you should mark that as a promo. No one should be sending those, at least without contacting the receiver first.

AchrisK wrote:

There should be a TRADE tab at the top somewhere.

Yeah, LaLa is obviously downplaying the whole trade thing, which sucks.

There is. It's right before BUY. They did just add a cool new feature for some albums. When you buy the CD, you get the MP3s for you iPod as well. This is actually kind of cool. I rip a lot of CDs I get, the MP3s go on CDRs for my truck, my Creative Zen player, or on my PC at home and work. I don't own an iPod, but it would be cool if I could order a CD and immediately have access to the MP3s before the CD arrives.

ultmetal wrote:

I don't think that rule is in place anymore. I remember reading back some time ago that they were going to allow trading of promos, but not selling of them, since that is illegal.

ult

They decided not to allow the trading of promos. It happens, though, but it's still against the rules.