Hi all
This message goes out to any catters who are struggling to have their music heard by a wider audience. I am about to launch a new dowload service which will differ considerably from iTunes, Napster, etc in that the music offered will be purely folk music (in it's broadest sense). I wont bore you with all the tech details here, but heres a brief outline.

The service will enable you to offer new or older pre - recorded works to the public via a secure server.

The artist will receive 50% of the download fee (current industry standard is a miserable 20%). All costs for hosting and publicity will be met from our 50%

All due payments will be made on a monthly basis to the musician / artist / copyright holder.

All payments will be accompanied with a full royalty statement enabling the artist to check number of dowloads.

The artist will be able to link his website too, making this a valuable promotional tool.

As I said earlier, the service covers folk in the widest possible tense with no geographical restrictions. Maybe you are a singer songwriter, a shantyman, a group of madrigal singers or a folk consort, your music will be welcomed. Possibly you recorded an LP 40 years ago that has long been out of print or maybe you are a new musician who wants to gain some exposure for a demo album. It doesn't matter.

There will be no costs to you whatsoever, and you retain the FULL rights to your material.

If this sounds like an avenue you wish to explore, please drop me a line. There are no promises of great riches to be had, but I hope this project will grow over the coming months to become an invaluable folk music resource of benefit to musicians, singers and purchasers of the music we love.

Feel free to drop me a line with any questions ammoniteuk@yahoo.co.uk or let me know your thoughts via mudcat.

All the best
LL