The explosion of Internet-use provides the opportunity for followers of traditional irish music to get access to a wealth of information relating to musical events, musicians etc from all around the globe. There are a great deal of Internet sites providing a variety of relevant information.

Furthermore some recordings of major traditional artists such as the Chieftains and Altan can be purchased over the Internet at various Internet Music Stores. But those with an interest in this type of music face difficulties :

• A great deal of traditional artists' recordings are not available at these sites as the particular Internet Store is unlikely to be interested in stocking relatively small quantities of titles that would only represent a small part of their business activity
• Even if the Internet Store stocked them they would be unlikely to take much of an active part in actually promoting the CD.
• This lack of promotion of a particular CD means that the Internet Store is effectively just listing the item. The intending purchaser is likely left with the equivalent of looking through a record rack and wondering whether to purchase a CD from someone they have never heard of - just because it happens to be in the 'Irish CD' section.
• Some artists might not be inclined to make the necessary arrangements to try to get a major Internet CD retailer to consider stocking the recording

The traditional musician will often record in relatively small numbers and arrange to stock the item only in a limited number of locations. These recordings are available to tourists passing through the region but often not to many others.

There are however a great deal of people all over the world who would indeed purchase these recordings if they could -

• .......go to an Internet Site and purchase them
• .......browse through the artist's biography (etc.) at that Internet Site
• .......ideally sample a few seconds of the music on each of the CDs
• .......purchase the CD securely on-line using a credit card

Very talented artists have hitherto been denied the opportunity of reaching a wider audience because of a lack of access to that audience and also the high costs of marketing and distribution.

traditional-direct has been set up specifically to allow the musician access to that wider audience and to allow the audience access to major talents that previously remained partially hidden.