'music is both an avocation and a profession... it's art'

Well, it can be but is it always?

There was a similar sort of discussion elsewhere recently, started by a jobbing bagpiper who does funerals and weddings (in the US) he said, among other things (in the context of justifying his fees to the people who hire him) :

You are paying for a piece of heart, part of a soul, a moment of someone's life. More importantly, you are paying for the musician to have more time to do something that they are passionate about.

But really, if you are in the business of providing a service like that, aren't you really just a craftsman like any plumber, plasterer etc? You're hanging an aural wallpaper as a background to proceedings, you're not making statements about the nature of the human condition.

Not everybody turning up somewhere with a musical instrument is going to produce art, you're more often supplying a service, be it entertaining the company, providing background noises or put a rhythm under the dancers' feet.