Ralph, thank you for the post. That helps me get a better understanding. I am glad to hear that the Topic recordings have been a help and Nic Jones was able to earn some royalties through their release. It is wonderful that the royalties were high enough to help him.

Here in the U.S., sales of CD's are not enough unless you are a pop musician. While some can make a nice living throug CD sales, it is very difficult. Artists must tour. I know that Dave Van Ronk had difficulty in his later years because of a lack of health insurance.

Recently, a record label tried re-releasing some of the old Tradition records released in the 50's and 60's. After an initial flurry of activity, I have not received a single CD in a year.   I can only surmise that the sales were not as good as expected. The company did a nice job of cleaning up the masters but not altering the music. It is a shame that more people are not interested.

As someone once said, there are hundreds of dollars to be made in folk music.