Even though I spend a lot of time in the UK, I have not seen the pay-to-play phenomenon as much over there as here in the USA, but then again it might be the circles I travel in.

doc.tom has also described a method that some places use as well over here in the USA and I have encountered it mostly in nightclub settings, not in folk music concert settings and series.

But the above is pay-to-play all the same.

And Dick is correct; it IS exploitation of the musician and it blows my mind how many of us actually do it.

Debra Cowan