"The world is a dark place in which a musician, in common with any other exploited purveyor of labour, has to fight for survival by selling the excellence of their product, or go under."

Diane if this were true then all the cash that gets poured into other minority arts like opera, wouldn't happen.
There are probably a lot more people watch, listen to, take part in, folk music than in opera. Why then do we not attract those vast sums of money? Perhaps we're not elitist enough, nor yet with influential friends in high places. As a person who has run clubs, and put his hand in his pocket to subsidise them too when needed, I can tell you it's done for love and not for snobbist reasons.
Giok