You Can’t Steal A Gift!

My ongoing exploration of alternative ways of thinking about our economic paradigm has given me a new set of lenses to use when I look at the things I already do.

I’m a musician; it’s how I make my living.

Recently a colleague linked to a story in the Boston Globe:

Across New England, church coffeehouses, library cafes, and eateries that pass the hat to pay local musicians or open their doors to casual jam sessions are experiencing a crackdown by performance rights organizations, or PROs, which collect royalties for songwriters.

His FB comment described them as: People trying to get something for nothing and then whining when they are thwarted.

Sympathetic though I am to the needs of working professionals, his words nevertheless didn’t set well with me. This post is my attempt at resolving that dissonance.

I’m a musician. It’s how I make my living — but it’s also how I make my life.

more »