"It's a free world and all that, and it's not my kind of music, but as one who runs a folk club I'd not book anyone on that premise, and wouldn't knowingly pay to see someone who had that criteria. I've recently attended a conference funded by The Arts Council to look at ways to increase the appeal of Folk Music to a wider audience, and pricing a wider audience out of it I feel is what vin is doing"


I was at that conference, too. Really? A tenner to see someone who headlines at many festivals is "pricing a wider audience out of it"?

People pay £3 for a pint of beer. Fish and chips will set you back £7. A cinema ticket costs £7. A gig at a local arts centre will start at around £12 or £14. And that's not even beginning to consider arena concerts, football matches...but you can go to a folk club and see a concert for £2 or £3.

Why do we in the folk community place so little value on our product, and by extension, our artists? We think they're great, and we love what they do - so how come we think they're worth less than a bag of chips?

Maybe, as Sarah has suggested, devaluing our product actually lessens its worth in the mind of the potential customer. I can tell you that in terms of basic marketing theory and practice, lowest price does not guarantee maximum, or even bigger, audiences. It's to do with the perceived value of the product. In any case, artificially low prices does not seem to be increasing folk club attendance at the moment, does it? Maybe it's time to try a different approach...


In any case, Vin doesn't appear to be pricing himself out of the market - as people have said, he specifies a minimum charge, and the gigs are rammed.