A customer acts within the framework of commerce...
Words 9 · RF@80 Series.
A customer acts within the framework of commerce. An audient acts within the framework of a listening community. When a musician believes that musicking is a commercial activity, the music dies inside them.
To act within the marketplace, but not to be governed by the values of the market-place, is a considerable personal discipline. To see the audient as consumer denies them their humanity. They become a purchasing unit. Our human interaction ends with the completion of the transaction. When musician & audience combine to bring music flying into our world, to be parents to the music, life begins again.
“Audient” is a description, not a label.
[Excerpt from RF’s Diary - April 15th. 1999]
Well said. Years ago, in the restaurant biz, I was taught to refer to diners as guests, not customers. I never forgot how important that mindset is.
Zappa referred to them as “oddients”.