I like SO'P's idea for online archive of lost recordings, but I can't see it happening for a few years yet.

The old model of packaged product may be in its death throes, but the music industry (including the labels that put out folk music) are going to hang on in there and squeeze the last £10 out of the last punter for the same-old-same-old CDs and mp3s before they think seriously about doing anything with the tens of thousands of tracks that have been lying buried in their vaults for decades.

And why shouldn't they?

They can't afford to digitize and release those old recordings in the traditional way and through the traditional distribution channels (including the latest online rip-off merchants). They're in business to make profits and under the current model they can't make the sums add up. The trouble is, the sums are never going to add up again.

Someone's got to be brave enough to try something new. So why shouldn't it be the folk labels, who've always nurtured an image of championing 'the people's music' and keeping THE MAN at arms length? What is there to stop them taking the initiative collectively and being the first to try a different model by clubbing together to start an online public library of their archive recordings?

TOGETHER they could set up a not-for-profit organisation and go for public funding to get it all off the ground. They could even involve the EFDSS. I'd sign up for £25 a year membership and 10p a download if enough labels got involved.

Who knows? One day even the bad guys (Decca, EMI, Celtic Music etc etc) might be persuaded to see the sense in joining in. They're not going to make much money out of those recordings any other way. And they might even get a buzz from doing the decent thing. Why not?

In the meantime the argy-bargy about the rights and wrongs of sharing lost treasures through online communities seems a bit pointless. What are people supposed to do if they want to hear Peter Bellamy's Won't You Go My Way? Wait with saintly resignation for a re-issue? For all we know, the master tapes were chucked into a Paris skip years ago.