My 0.02 is there isn't a single monolithic 'folk music industry' as such, but there are a great number of commercial and voluntary organisations that are dependent upon the existence of the appetite and audience for folk/traditional music.

By which I don't only mean the artists/performers who are trying to make a living on the folk club / folk festival / arts centres circuit.

There are the festivals and clubs themselves, some run on a commercial basis, some run for love. There are the record labels, either specialistic folk labels or those that carry folk as part of a wider remit. There are also instrument makers who are dependent upon demand for their wares: if the bottom suddenly fell out of the wooden flute market, for example, where would that leave fine craftsmen such as Hamilton, Grinter, Lehart and Ormiston?

I presume you're aware of the Arts Council report on the economic value of folk festivals, which seems to have disappeared off of the Folk Arts England website but an email to them might revive.

To answer your other questions:

The Internet is a vast resource in finding out what's going on. Mudcat is great, the uk.music.folk newsgroup used to be excellent but is pretty moribund now, lots of individual bands and organisations and sub-genres and instruments have mailing lists.

TV tends to be reactive (eg highlights from Cambridge or Celtic Connections) but if you weren't at the festival (or were at another gig that night) you can pick up new stuff from there (I discovered the wonderful Asturian band Tejedor through the CC programmes for example). YouTube is also good for that!

Don't forget about print - Living Tradition magazine is excellent, fRoots is OK if rather obsessed with going 'Hey! New Trend!' every month, local magazines also help.

Mike Harding's programme trots a good distance behind the current scene rather than being a leader or a key identifier of new talent. It is also completely spavined by the pathetic requirement that it doesn't frighten the core Radio 2 audience away by playing anything too scarily different from everything else on Radio 2!

As regards buying ... wherever I can buy! Amazon are good, but I like to buy direct from the artist wherever possible. The big folk retailers (Proper, Mrs Casey, Roots Records) are all good for highlighting new discoveries and 'If you like this, then you might like *this*' ...