This whole comment page has really been a lesson for me....including Deane and Glenn's input above.

I burned out of playing 4-5 years ago. My heart wasn't in it anymore and so my performances were becoming hum-drum and lacking in meaning and I let my clients slowly drift away. In just a few months I went from 50-60 accounts to the 5-6 accounts I have today.

I didn't quite remember WHY I burned out......NOW I do. It was the tip of the iceberg of everything that was discussed. I "felt" it before I "saw" it. It was the start of the transition of the "good guys" (AD's) to the "bad guys" (synthetic AD's). Suddenly the joy of entertaining was gone because by the time you got to appear in front of your audience, you were drained of the complications that were starting to appear: cancelations, moving your appearance date because of bad scheduling, sob stories from the AD's with inevitable cuts in your pay, massive amounts of paperwork both before and after the job, aides sitting there reading while they're supposed to be keeping order in the room, etc.

The bright spot on the horizon now (for me, at least) is where I live they are building high end senior retirement communities one after the other. And, now it seems to be back to......it's not what the AD's want, it's what the paying residents want for their entertainment. I'm starting to book some of these and playing their magnificent grand pianos that they all have and doing entertaining "shows" now, and.....re-gaining some professional respect again that I used to savor before all musicians became generic.

Reference to Dnj's remark above: I'll never forget what someone told me many years ago. "Would you rather be driving a taxicab on the night shift somewhere in the Bronx or doing what you're doing with music?" The answer doesn't take much figuring out.

My own thought is "The very worst of this job is still better than the best of most other jobs (with the exception of Jeff Bezos)!"

And.......I hear this comment quite frequently: "You are so lucky, getting to do what you like and getting paid for it to boot!" That helps a whole lot in dealing with this overnight change in the business.