I find it interesting to see how much Small values listeners and live musical performance. Maybe it's just how I am perceiving this line, but I feel like in Small's eyes, if I am just sitting at home listening to Spotify, I'm not musicking 'as much' as if I were to be sitting and listening to a live performance. I feel this is because just listening off Spotify eliminates the encounter between musician and listener, which Small clearly values immensely.

I feel this line can be taken two very different ways, and it is essential to see both sides of this argument. Saying the ticket collectors and the piano men 'take part' in the production of music does two things. One, it extends an appreciation to those who enable musical performance to occur, and two, it can take away from those who are actually producing the music. So, while yes, they may be involved in the music performance process, they aren't as important to the performance as those actually creating the sounds.