The point is, Conrad, that your 'paradigm' is already happening in the field of 'folk' music, and always has. However, if it wasn't for professionals, amplification, stages and big organised events (with toilets) there would never have been any expansion and many people would be fairly oblivious to it. In other words, if you keep it small, it stays small. It's a simple thing to understand. Every professional knows that if they charge too much they don't get the job; they don't 'ration' themselves, they need all the work they can get. I don't really know the economics of the US folk scene, but in the UK it's impossible to make a living from folk music without a great deal of travelling and playing large festivals. Even then it's not a decent living unless you are prepared to play outside the country, where gigs tend to be significantly more lucrative - if you can get them. Maybe you would prefer folk music not to be entertainment, that's your prerogative, but to the vast majority that is not the case. As for volunteers being exploited, the key to that one is the word 'volunteer'. Likewise the audience, who volunteer to buy tickets so that the events which provide their favourite form of entertainment can be perpetuated. I don't particularly like the fact that public money is necessary to keep the UK folk scene going, but on the other hand the same is true for classical music the world over, and I wouldn't want to lose that either. As they say, there's no such thing as a free lunch.