Update (April 23, 2006): This weekend La La pushed a new catalog which considerably improves the metadata situation. There is room for improvement (still no Spoombung or Sarin Israel Nes Ziona), but I’m far happier than before.

I’ve been using La La a lot lately. La La is a great, simple idea: create a CD bartering marketplace, exploiting the web as an extremely efficient machine for matching those who want with those who have, and borrowing a streamlined postal delivery mechanism from NetFlix. All you really need is a database full of CD catalog metadata, a neato AJAXified interface, and a bunch of preprinted CD mailing cases, and you can sit back and let the $1.50 per trade pour in.

But that CD catalog metadata had better be good. Every CD missing from it is a trade that will never happen. Every CD filed under the wrong artist is a trade that will never happen. Every box set listed as a single CD, every truncated album title… you get the idea. Even incorrect cover art could lead to confusion and inhibit trading. Bad metadata is especially destructive for the long tail trades–if only one person out there in La La land has the CD I want, and they have trouble finding a way to list their CD because it’s listed in La La’s catalog with the wrong info… well, it’s goodbye La La and back to Amoeba for me.

Unfortunately for La La, their metadata sucks. They have all the problems listed above and more. Missing CDs I could possibly forgive–maybe they’re due to legal doubts around imports–but mispellings, uncorrelated artist name variations, and truncated album titles I can’t. My advice to anyone thinking of starting a similar venture: don’t try to build your own metadata catalog, and don’t buy one from some crappy closed metadata vendor. Closed vendors can’t scale to the long tail. You need metadata from an open system: in the case of music, something like MusicBrainz or Discogs (I think Discogs is slightly better). The closed metadata company’s drones won’t get around to cataloging the latest Spoombung album or a limited edition Muslimgauze CD. Hardcore music fans, on the other hand, will–especially if it means they’ll be able to trade them.

Services like La La exist by virtue of their metadata. If they aren’t careful, they’ll cease to exist because of their metadata too.