I suppose the folk world is quite different from many other musical genres in that many folkies are perfectly happy to get together and make their own music without ever attending paid gigs. This means that those who are trying to make a living are competing with the free or near-free events that people set up - club singarounds, sessions, folk weekends, etc. They're also competing with lots of very competent singers and musicians who have little or no inclination to market themselves commercially and who will happily perform just for the love of the music. Also, many of those who regularly do paid gigs and who market CDs of their music are also quite happy to join in local sessions and perform for free.

I can see that if your goal is commercial success, you may find it a bit frustrating to see lots of perfectly enjoyable events featuring similar music to yours taking place without anyone making any money.

I have no real solution to suggest, but I do appreciate that without the contributions of many of the pros, our musical heritage would be much the poorer. I do try to support paid events when I can - like to attend concerts, clubs and festivals from time to time, to hear people whom I might otherwise never hear performing live, and also to hear showcase gigs by people whom I've also heard playing for free in clubs and sessions.

Oh, and I don't think youth and beauty are critical. If you look at the artists who draw big crowds at clubs and festivals, many are neither young nor pretty (I'm not naming names, but you can surely think of some examples).

Marje