I am a professional musician. I have been looking in on this thread every so often and have taken in the many contributions here. I am also a proud member of the American Federation of Musicians and Vice president of my Local, AFM Local 1000.

One thing that this thread has taught me is that I have no right to judge another person's musical performance decisions. If a musician wants to play for a fee or for no fee, that is their decision and their's alone. This is also the position of Local 1000. We would love it if all musicians, pro or not got paid a decent wage, but that is not the reality and so be it.

Mick and others spoke of exploitation and it certainly exists. I am glad to say that I have not run into this situation in the folk music venues or communities in which I participate. In fact, many times that I have given or donated my musical services, the reward I received was much greater than I ever could have foreseen, either in the satisfaction that I made a contribution or in some cases, monetary compensation that was not discussed during the booking process.

It all comes down to a musician's choice. For me, getting paid is important since it's how I make my living and as was said in another post, it's not a black and white issue.

Debra Cowan