Re: Why SHOULDN'T musicians be paid?

[Daryl Shawn <highhorse@mhorse.com>]

This is really well put, Travis...it corresponds closely to my thoughts 
on this whole shebang. Nice to differentiate !worth! and $worth$.

We should come up with universal units for !worth!.

Daryl Shawn
www.swanwelder.com
www.chinapaintingmusic.com

> No, I have a lot of respect for what I do--what I don't have is a lot 
> of money for doing it. 
>
> Music is something that exists in two worlds, one of which is the 
> "world of commerce".  In that world, it has a property which I'll call 
> "$value$", which measures how much money can be made off it.  In the 
> other world, it has a property which I'll call "!value!". 
>
> The two worlds are NOT directly coupled.  !value! does not directly 
> correlate to $value$. 
> Musicians often wish that it did, yet secretly fear that it may.
>
> For me, the easiest way to remain a happy musician is not to worry 
> much about the $value$ of my music, and the simplest way to do that is 
> to earn my living doing something else and devote my other time, and 
> the resources that my job brings to making music.  So I've spent years 
> of playing between one and two hundred gigs a year in a variety of 
> local venues in several cities, and it's based on this experience that 
> I arrived at my view of the $worth$ of music.  Even my own $worth$ in 
> a non-fixed value--at a cafe gig I'm $worth$, at most, $50.  At a 
> wedding the next day, I'm $worth$ $500.  The next week I open for 
> someone in a larger club and I'm $worth$ $100.  It's the same music at 
> all three events, but the monetary compensation is all over the place 
> (and never enough for the manner in which I prefer--indoors and with 
> health insurance...).  Ironically, experience suggests that the 
> !worth! of the wedding gig, to me, will be the lowest of the three.
>
> And no, I'm not bitter about not being able to make a living making 
> music.  "Bitterness" is a product of being denied something to which 
> you are entitled, and I don't believe that anyone is entitled to make 
> a living.  Should they be?  Maybe, in the most perfect of all perfect 
> !worlds!, but in the $world$, the answer  is "no".  So, musicians, 
> nurses, teachers, plumbers, lawyers--all you can do is fly your flag 
> and see if anyone rallies to it. 
>
> TH