I live in the Boston area and listen to several folk music shows on the radio or internet streams.   I often hear music, especially Celtic music, that I want to obtain but find it difficult or expensive. For example, WGBH has a show, Celtic Sojourn, where the host, Brian O'Donovan, travels to Ireland or Scotland and brings back CDs for the show's music library.

Much of this music seems unavailable in the US. CD's can be ordered online from the bands but they are INCREDIBLY expensive - €15 is typical, which is $22.50 at today's exchange rate.    That's too much, considering I'm unemployed and I may only be interested in 1 or 2 tracks. Online sites like Amazon, Rhapsody, and iTunes seldom carry this music.

Furthermore, I don't listen to CD's - my music collection is about 15,000 tracks and it's all digital so I can listen on my iPod, my Sonos system, etc, so if I buy a CD I also have to rip it and tag it properly.   

Being a good geek, I know how to stream-capture this music to add to my library for free, but that seems unethical because the artist gets nothing for it.

QUESTIONS:

1. Why do Irish CD's cost so much?

2. Why don't Celtic bands get with the 21st century and sell their music digitally track-by-track?   Being a good geek I know that's easy to set up - digital distribution is easier and cheaper for the artist than CD's (and a LOT more environmentally responsible!!) and the merchant account part is the same.   Artists are always complaining that people rip them off by using "file-sharing" services, but if they met the public halfway by making it easy to buy their music online it would cut down on that.

3. Do I have other reasonable alternatives for buying music from Celtic bands?

Thanks in advance for advice and comments.