I presume that GUEST just above is David still in his pajamas.

". . . what some get for their hour's work, compared with others, is ridiculous and inhumane. . . ."

David, this is a common fallacy of people who really haven't thought the matter through. If you figure only the hour or two that you see them on stage, it would appear that the thousands of dollars that some musicians get is way out of line.

But—if you take what they receive for their time on stage, then deduct the amount of money they paid for lessons early on and the tuition they paid to a university music schools or to music conservatories, then divide it by the number of hours, weeks, and years of concentrated practice they had to put in to learn to do what you saw them do on stage, then you get a better idea of what their "hourly wage" really is!

They paid one helluva lot of money and put in a helluva lot of hours in practice to be able to earn the fees they charge for their performances.

Don't forget to factor in the immediate expenses of going on a concert tour, such as travel, hotels, taxis to and from the venue, and a whole host of other costs.

While attending the Cornish School of the Arts (a conservatory) some decades back, one of the most eye-opening courses I took was "the Business Side of a Career in Music." That was quite a reality sandwich!!

And this has nothing to do with capitalism. It has to do with just compensation for the amount of hard work the musician had to put in to get where he or she is. But then, I don't think you are fully acquainted with what that really entails.

Read, listen, and learn, David.

Don Firth