Greetings:

I have no idea who they are, but a website called Lala.com is selling my newly released digital album Old Fashioned Folksinger for $2.50 less than the official price on CD Baby. Furthermore, they are selling MP3 downloads of the individual tracks for just 89¢ rather than the CD Baby and iTunes price of 99¢ each.

How can they do this? I'm not really sure, but I do know that when I signed up with CD Baby I said it was OK to sell my album and single tracks from it through their Internet partners. Up until now, these secondary outlets were either charging the same as CD Baby or even charging more. Lala is the first one I have seen that charges less. So you can pay the full $9.99 for Old Fashioned Folksinger or you buy it from Lala for just $7.49. Here's a clickable link.

As far as I'm concerned, even at its full price Old Fashioned Folksinger is a bargain. You get 20 of my best songs; some have been remixed and all have been remastered. Many of the songs feature vocal and/or instrumental accompaniment from such artists as Robin Greenstein, Ray Korona, Joel Landy, Chris Lang, Heather Lev, Anne Price, Gina Tlamsa, and he late Eric Levine. Some are traditional folk songs and others are songs I wrote myself in traditional style. I dare anybody to figure out which are which.

But this bargain basement website took me completely by surprise. Furthermore, Lala.com has somehow positioned itself to become the top hit when you search my name on Google.

Has anyone had any experience with Lala.com or with outlets like them? Will this work to my advantage, or will it devalue my own product? Should I be concerned? I can always tell CD Baby that I no longer wish to participate in their Internet partners program, but should I? Any advice would be most welcome.

Thanks.

--- Steve Suffet