Privacy Policy and Service Standards

How we store and use your data:

For subscribers, we store your address and other contact details locally in a secure database. We do not store personal or financial information and we do not disclose any information to third parties.

Cookies are used on our site to keep track of the contents of your shopping basket once you have selected an item. We retain the contact information you provide through the ordering process in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Information we collect is used only to facilitate delivery of your order and we do not disclose any information to third parties. 

If you choose to subscribe to our Newsletter, we store your name and email address locally and generally use this to send you information relevant to this music, sometimes incorporating information from other trusted enthusiasts in the form of a newsletter. We take care not to include material likely to be regarded as junk mail and frequency of emails is typically less than one message per month. 

Payment Security:

Card payments are processed securely online by PayPal, a well-established and highly secure service. For online transactions credit or debit card numbers are not known to us but are already stored or collected by PayPal, who are fully compliant with PCI-DSS (the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). 

Where you send us or give us written card details, typically when subscribing to the magazine, we process these securely online by PayPal. We do not store your payment card details for security reasons.

Delivery Policy

We ship all CDs by Royal Mail within the UK and by Airmail to the rest of the world. We charge a standard post and package price. This applies to each order, not to each CD, and applies throughout the world. Most orders are dispatched within 48 hours. Royal Mail delivery within the UK is typically between one or two days. International deliveries can take several days longer.

We have never pretended to be a slick, quick, operation – although many of our customers find our service great. We are at the opposite end of the spectrum to people selling ‘top 20 products’ – our aim is to provide a genuine service helping people to find recordings that are often ignored and sometimes well hidden. We have over 3,000 items listed on our files. Some of them are many years old, yet as fresh musically as the day they were released. For many people we have been the ‘last chance saloon’ for a special recording. 

Many of the recordings we list are released by tiny labels or by individual artists with no effective commercial distribution. If we do not list them, the danger is they become invisible, yet if we do list them there can occasionally be supply issues including occasional delays. We have currently chosen to list some items based on musical rather than strictly commercial reasons. 

Although we keep physical stock of most of the items listed, sometimes when we have to order or reorder we encounter delays. Occasionally some items will have been deleted and may prove to be impossible to source. In the past we didn’t charge people until we supplied the goods, now, for security reasons, payments are processed through a PayPal / Credit Card Gateway and money is taken at the point of ordering. If items are delayed or prove to be impossible to source we will advise you and you may cancel your order and be refunded or we will advise you on suitable alternatives.

Cancellation, Refund and Return Policy

Magazine Subscriptions: Magazine Subscriptions are non-refundable, but if the magazine is no longer of interest to you, on request we can transfer the subscription to another person you nominate. Subscriptions are for a fixed number of issues, generally 12, rather than a definite period of time.

CDs and other products: We will exchange products for any reasonable reason within 14 days of receipt.

You have the right to cancel all or part of your order at any time before it is dispatched by us, for a full refund of your original payment. Please just let us know by email or telephone. If your order has already been dispatched, you may return any unwanted item(s) to us within 7 days of receipt. In this case we can refund your original item price, but not any associated international outbound or return postage charges.

Faulty items will be checked after return, so please include a detailed description of any fault as we must be able to confirm specific faults. Your card will be refunded for your return postage costs if a fault is confirmed, and a replacement sent wherever possible.

Any refund will occur within 7 days of order cancellation or receipt of returned items, on the credit or debit card that was originally used to complete the transaction.

Return Procedure

Please use only First/Second Class (UK) or Standard / Economy Airmail (international) for items returned to us for any reason. We do not offer compensation for the higher cost of other carriage services. To ensure safe transit, item(s) should be wrapped in the original delivery package, or one of equivalent or better quality.

RETURN ADDRESS: The Living Tradition, PO BOX 1026, KILMARNOCK, KA2 0LG, Ayrshire, Scotland.

These policies do not affect your statutory rights.

Suggestions, Comments, Questions or Complaints

If you have any suggestions, comments, questions or complaints, please contact us. We endeavor to answer all queries within 3 working days and to respond promptly to any complaints. 

Address and Contact Details

We operate from a physical address in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, although most of our correspondence is through a Post Office Box address. You can contact us at: The Living Tradition, PO BOX 1026, KILMARNOCK, KA2 0LG, Scotland. Our telephone number is 01563 571220 email: admin@folkmusic.net Our physical address is 16 Annandale Gardens, Kilmarnock, KA2 0LE.