It's kind of fitting that we should end as we began with Diane and Lizzie rowing. It really did make me smile.
I haven't spoken with Ian since 2006 and he had nothing to do with us since long before that. I don't know about his other activities but he left folk due to terrible family circumstances. He literally *had* to leave immediately and we never heard from him again apart from one email. So any association people might have had in their mind were totally erroneous.
We didn't have to close WWW, it was paying it's way and no money was lost. It was just a decision about the future taken calmly at a point where we had time to think. It's nice to get some family time back and to listen to music for pleasure once again. It was meant to be fun and would have turned into slog at some point in the near future.
As for Bulmer, my final word is - it's easy to go after Ian but I don't see anyone going after Honest Jon's label who did a deal with them! Don't bother emailing me about it, I'm long gone.
As for the site closing, it's not an issue about downloads per se. sales were soaring last year, but as the catalogue got bigger it got more daunting to search around it. There was a huge amount of traditional, folk-rock, Ceilidh, nautical folk that people here probably didn't realise sat alongside the other material. But if people aren't looking then there's little we can do. I knew we never crossed over to the *trad* crowd and as a voice in this group show, there was at least scepticism from some quarters. If you can't get them on side and out there spreading the word, or reaching a broad audience via BBC then it's always going to be hard.
Folk music fans often seem to follow artists they already know. As has been observed there are lots of factors. However don't think the site was a failure, we achieved what we aimed to do. It's just that taking it on further required a step change it wasn't worth making.
Incidentally I have had loads of sites email in the last day say they think we are brave for making this step and that they aren't making ends meet. This includes well known labels and review sites in the trad / folk-rock area. It seems they are considering doing the same and that sales of recorded music are falling quickly in all mediums. It's not just us who is seeing falling customer support, it's a lot of people promoting new music.
We could have continued and would have done alright, but with Myspace starting to sell downloads, Amazon coming in and iTunes level of market dominance, there was little point. Even CDBaby now sell downloads alongside the CD. Exiting in a positive way seemed the best thing to do at the right time.
At the end of the day, I know it's easy to critique, to observe, to sit on the sidelines and nit-pick. But I feel glad that I got off my backside and tried something new. I met a lot of great people, helped a bit and put some money into artists pockets.