Re: Sit-Ins (sessions)

[Michael Carley <mjcarley@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > The issue here is not that music is being made available in a public 
> > place.  The issue of concern to professional musicians [in this case 
> > I refer to people who make a living at providing musical 
> > entertainment] is that they are being shunted aside in favor of 
> > people who will play free.  It undercuts the price and therefore, in 
> > the eyes of most Western culture-vultures, the VALUE of the art.

The thing is that (certainly in Ireland) those musicians who are good
enough to charge a fee get an audience prepared to pay. When Davy Spillane
(or Lester Davenport or CJ Chenier) plays Whelans, people come out and
pay to listen. The same people also go and listen to music for free. I have
heard some of the best musicians and singers in the country play for nothing.
I have also payed to hear them. Why the idea that good amateurs are taking
money away from pros? If the pros are that good, people will happily pay
to listen to them. And who ever got into music for money anyway?

-- 
If chance supplied a loaf of white bread,  |m.carley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Two casks of wine and a leg of mutton,     |mjcarley@xxxxxxxxxxx
In the corner of a garden with a           |Michael Carley
	tulip-cheeked girl                 |Mechanical Engineering,
There'd be enjoyment no Sultan could outdo.|Trinity College, Dublin