Re: Why SHOULDN'T musicians be paid?

["Rick Walker" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Travis wrote:
"What I do as a musician is very useful--to me.  Fifteen years of public 
performance has led me to the conclusion that it's not terribly useful to 
most people, certainly not when it comes to them paying me money for what 
I 
do.

When plumbing goes wrong, people get sick and die.  Clean water flowing in 
and dirty water flowing out without a problem is a necessity for living.  
If 
I get hit by a bus on my way to a gig, they play the in-store CD player 
that 
night.  When my sewer line breaks because a tree root has broken a pipe 
under the front yard, I need a lot of specialized information, tools, time 
and smelly effort to set things right again--or I pay someone else a 
thousand dollars to do it better and quicker than I can.  When people 
don't 
have any music, they turn on the radio and the problem's solved.  Music is 
incredibly easy to find, plumbing less so.  Thus the average plumber makes 
much more than the average musician."


Wow,  Travis,   your cyncism and lack of respect or existential self 
esteem 
for what you do is astonishing to me and hard to believe.

I'm proud to be a musician,  whether I'm paid well or not.   I'll do it 
until I die because I love it and value it myself.
I can't imagine living without music, frankly.

Maybe I"m reading you wrong,  but do I detect a large share of bitterness 
about your inability to make money from your music?

In my world,  I value artistry and creativity higher than almost anything, 
so I don't have any judgement of whether you can make money with your 
music 
or not.
Some of my favorite artists are NOT full time professional musicians.

  To assume, of course, is to make an ASS out of U and ME
so I could be way off base here, but I'm just curious about your response 
to 
the strong things I"ve just said.

Perplexed but still respectfully yours,

Rick