Bernard, Leadfingers is right about my intent with the above sentence regarding print v download. Also, such things can be taken care of in the context of the financial arrangements ("a tenner less from your fixed fee/guarantee if the club does the printing"). The fact remains that downloading is cheaper than paper-mailing (the printing being equal in both cases), so this is away to take cost out of the operation, easing pressure on entrance fees (mind you, I'll agree it's peanuts compared to other factors). And on top of that downloading allows the club to update their own website more easily.

Jack, I grant you the example I used may not be well thought-out. I just wanted to make the point that information is there to be used by all parties. At Herga we start with a draft of our next 6 months' diary based on public holidays, our members' wishes for booking certain people and the best of the solicitations from artists/agents to date. Then we check that against artists' websites to make sure our wishes are achievable, and then we contact the artists to offer the gigs. Seems to make good sense. Of course, the artist may turn round and offer alternative days that might suit them better because they are planning a local tour.

Howard Jones, you said that "for an artist, a website is an essential marketing tool for their business....Whilst a club is also a business, the reality is that most are run on a part-time basis...". But the majority of the artists are part-timers too, even if their other job is in some cases music-related like teaching. And they only have a pool of one for the skills they need to acquire, whereas a club has a pool of its regulars/organising committee etc. But this is probably a moot point, as the world moves on, and we all need to keep up with it. An artist has the need to be "attractive" and accessible to get bookings; but a club also has the same requirements towards its audience.

I don't see this in any way as clubs versus artists. Both clubs and artists are part of the same production team that needs to attract customers for their product. The question is "Are we using the available technologies sufficiently/appropriately/to our best advantage, and what more can we do?"