Sorry Faye, but you talk like a management consultant brought in to restructure the NHS or something.

As you've said, the music scene you've been involved in so far is one where audiences are there for a night out, or for reasons other than the music itself. Those agents sell bands to fit that night out and often the customer doesn't care who they get.

Folk clubs, on the other hand, exist specifically because of the music. The folk club scene isn't a like a chain of shops or a franchised food brand. Yes, it's fragmented. That's because it's lots and lots of individual clubs started and run by music lovers, almost always volunteers. Each club has developed along its own lines, to its own tastes. Why should any of those clubs change if they don't want to?

To my mind the other side of the folk scene, the folk festivals, works well at pulling together the clubgoers, the agents, the organisers, the performers, and the non-club audiences. In effect, they function rather like folk music's annual conferences.

The fact is, anyone can try to do what the current club organisers have done and start new clubs from scratch to cater for their own preferences. Anyone can have a go at being an agent. If people want what you offer, great. If not, you've probably misunderstood the market.

Incidentally, most professional folk performers do use agents to book their gigs and tours, even in folk clubs, and pay the agent's fee themselves.