Hey Patrick,

Perhaps teachers, cooks in cafeterias and old folks homes, nurses and workers in old age homes, etc. should also volunteer their services. They are also making money from students, old people and children.
As a musician, I don't like to be taken for granted. If these places have the money, I think the entertainers have as much right to be paid as anyone else who performs a service for them. Too often it's expected that musicians will donate their services for free and most of us have done so at one time or another. How many plumbers or electricians can say the same thing?