I’ve got your snark right here

Okay, the Mac snark will have to wait another day because I’ve got other fish to fry; namely, Michael Arrington’s ridiculous denunciation of CD-swap start-up la la:

Lala is a new service, set to launch this summer, that allows people to swap physical CDs.

[…] You will tell lala what music you have. Other members can request it from you, and you send it directly to them using a postage-prepaid envelope supplied by lala. They charge $1 for the swap, and $.20 goes directly to artists.

You aren’t supposed to send copies of CDs (originals only), and lala asks that you do the “right thing” and remove songs from your iPod or PC once you’ve sent a CD to another member. While I’m all for the revenue sharing with artists, pleeeease, lala, get over yourself and drop the condescending, do-the-right-thing-as-defined-by-the-RIAA messaging.

Here’s the thing; while I’ve taped plenty of borrowed CDs in my time (not to mention spending countless teenage Sunday evenings listening to the Top 40 with my finger poised over the record button, ready to tape Sheriff Fatman or whatever), I’m not going to decry anyone who tells me that it might not have been entirely legal to do so or dismiss their opinion as “the-right-thing-as-defined-by-the-RIAA”.

It gets better:

My hope for lala is that they […] don’t try to enforce the “no copies” rule too strongly.

Just out of interest, Michael, do you actually have any idea how they could enforce it or are you just taking aim with another pot-shot? Are you expecting them to send a fleet of forensic scientists round to audit every PC and MP3 player you own to make sure you don’t have any copies of X & Fucking Y on them? Or should they just send out a comprehensive questionnaire and glare sternly at you if you admit to keeping a copy?

More to the point, would you even be snarking about the site if you hadn’t been scooped by USA Today? Inquiring minds, and all that.

Moving on (and switching off the snark for now), Robert Scoble has been talking about the benefits of having an ugly website:

At the Northern Voice conference I met Markus Frind, founder of Plentyoffish.com. He’s Google’s #1 Adsense user in Canada. His site is pulling in more than $10,000 per day from Google, he told me, and has millions of passionate users. Tens of millions of page views EVERY DAY. Whew!

What’s the secret to his success? Ugly design. I call it “anti-marketing design.”

I concur with some of the commentators; it’s more than likely that the success comes from the fact that it’s a dating site and it’s free. Also, you can search just for people who want an “intimate encounter”. There’s your $10,000 per day right there, I reckon.

However, I found something on the site that depressed me; namely, the fact that at the age of 27 I’m already too old for a 63 year-old (who says she likes “young guys between 18 and 21″, adding the slightly questionable phrase “or younger”). There’s nothing like finding out that you’re 6 years too old for a pensioner (her word, not mine) to make you feel not just over the hill, but right down the other side and halfway up the next hill. I’m not even sure the bit about being halfway up the next hill even makes sense, but that’s clearly due to my ageing brain needing a metaphorical cup of tea and a nice sit down.

Bourbon biscuit, anyone?




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5 Responses to 'I’ve got your snark right here'

  1. Michael Arrington - March 9th, 2006 at 1:06 am

    I would imagine that they would ask recipients to verify that they received the CD, as Peerflix does. If they also ask if the CD is an original, and plan to suspend or terminate users who send copies, that would be the enforcement mechanism. I’m hoping that they don’t do that.

    I think you took my post out of context. I said that I thought they were being condescending towards users, and I think they are. I think they will have the Peerflix problem of people only showing crappy inventory in the hope of trading for something better - as a member of Peerflix I’ve seen that happen and its a real problem. But I wish them well, as I do for all startups that I write about. Clearly my opinions offended you. The problem is that I don’t think they should have.

    And yes, I’m pissed off that USA Today got the scoop. I’m competitive. Is that also a problem? What I didn’t mention, but could have, is that USA Today wrote a total puff piece, failed to point out any of the obvious problems and also failed to note the clear duplication of Peerflix’s business model. I have spoken and written numerous times on how badly big media covers technology. They are lazy and I believe that most of the people who write these pieces lack passion for the products. Again, sorry if all of this offends you but we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

  2. Stu - March 9th, 2006 at 10:13 pm

    Hi Michael, thanks for dropping by to comment — I wasn’t seriously expecting it (those questions were more rhetorical than anything else) but it’s appreciated.

    I would imagine that they would ask recipients to verify that they received the CD, as Peerflix does. If they also ask if the CD is an original, and plan to suspend or terminate users who send copies, that would be the enforcement mechanism. I’m hoping that they don’t do that.

    I think I’m starting to see what you’re getting at (if the artists are getting their cut anyway then why not send copies out?) but I’m still not sure I agree; if I’m paying money for a CD then I want the original in my hands. Otherwise, what’s the point in actually paying when I can just download it for free and buy an extra t-shirt the next time I go and see the band?

    I’ve no doubt that there will be a lot of crap cluttering up the system but you seemed to be writing them off before they began for other reasons (and pretty flimsy ones at that), which is in stark contrast to the optimistic posts you make about most startups — hence my thinking aloud about whether you were feeling a little uncharitable due to the USA Today scoop (although as a Briton you’ll have to excuse me not knowing exactly where in the respectability spectrum the paper lies, and hence exactly how annoying it is that they got the news first).

    Anyway, the disagreement agreement sounds good to me. No offence was taken, sometimes I just get a little carried away once I start writing…

  3. Michael Arrington - March 10th, 2006 at 5:08 am

    Stu, ok, still friends? hug. :-)

  4. Stu - March 11th, 2006 at 3:20 am

    Sure! Although a manly handshake will suffice, if it’s alright with you…

  5. Haarball - March 15th, 2006 at 8:31 am

    Ew.