Sadly, due the threat of increased licence fees, theacousticstage.net has come to an end.

SoundExchange (who collect royalties on behalf of sound recording copyright holders in the USA) have recently won a ruling for a massive increase in royalty rates from internet radio stations, backdated to Jan 2006, with further increases every year for the next four years.

Oh yes, and even further increases if we get more listeners...

If even a part of this increase goes ahead, a lot of stations will be forced to close. While we agree that songwriters and copyright holders are entitled to revenue, we feel it has to be in proportion to the income of the broadcaster.

theacousticstage.net has only ever broken even at best, so we have decided to call it a day now.

We don't rule out the possibility of coming back in some form, but for now, it is farewell...Instead, have a listen to Folk Radio UK, doing everything we wanted to do, but better!

And give these artists a listen - just click on Play...

Steve

Blog

Thanks to all of the artists, record companies, agents, and fans who sent CDs in.

Thanks to all of the generous listeners who hit the Donate button.

Thanks to those who rented the advertising space.

Thanks to all of those who have helped to spread the word, mentioning theacousticstage.net on forums, or advertising our presence (you know who you are Ian!)

And of course, a big thanks to everyone who has listened.

To continue enjoying internet radio, we recommend the following

Folk Radio UK - carrying on from where we left off. Possibly even better!!

Radio Britfolk - a weekly mix of shows & features on the British folk scene.

Hober Radio- a glorious stream of Americana and other "unvarnished" music. One the inspirations behind theacousticstage.net

anetstation.com - is it really broadcast from Antarctica? Who knows - it's worth a listen.

BBC Folk Listen Again - a big list of shows from BBC national & local stations, all available on their Listen Again service