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Who Gets a Seat at the Table?

Edward Schooley
Posted: October 7, 2026
Entitlement | Editors Desk | Guitar Thrills Magazine
In the music industry, opportunity, achievement, influence, and entitlement don't always come from the same place.

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EDITOR IN CHIEF | GUITAR THRILLS MAGAZINE TAMPA, FL U.S.A.

Edward Schooley

Founded in 2021. GUITAR THRILLS MAGAZINE of Tampa, FL Guitar Thrills Magazine of Tampa, FL U.S.A. The GUITAR THRILLS MAGAZINE is excited to bring you some of the music industries finest talent. Including the world of entertainment. Our focus includes the long term goals and aspirations of artists of all sorts. We are an unbiased reporting platform. You are getting insight into the world of music. No, we are not your fathers website for music news. We have grown into our own, and rely upon decades of music experience and knowledge. Guitar Thrills Magazine is a hard act to follow.

There are certain words that have become so common that we almost stop thinking about what they mean. Diversity. Inclusion. Opportunity. Access. They appear in corporate mission statements and workplace policies, but the music industry operates by a very different set of rules. There isn't always an HR department. There isn't always a policy manual. There isn't necessarily a formal process for challenging a decision or reporting unfair treatment. Sometimes the person controlling the opportunity is the same person you would have to challenge if you believed you were being treated unfairly.

That creates a different kind of environment. The music industry is built around relationships, reputation, talent, timing, and sometimes simply being in the right room when the right conversation takes place. Those things can open doors. They can also keep doors closed. And that's where the conversation gets interesting, because the question isn't simply whether everyone is being treated equally. The bigger question is whether people are being given a fair opportunity to demonstrate what they can contribute.

Different perspectives and backgrounds are part of what makes music interesting. Different experiences create different stories. Different influences create different sounds. A musician who approaches a song from a completely different place can sometimes bring something to it that nobody else could. That's the beauty of music. It doesn't need everyone to think alike.

But opportunity isn't always distributed according to talent. Sometimes it follows relationships. Sometimes it follows reputation. Sometimes it follows money. Sometimes it follows familiarity. And sometimes it follows someone's perception of who is important enough to be given a chance. That last one deserves some attention because the music industry has another problem that doesn't receive nearly as much discussion: entitlement.

Achievement can give someone confidence. Entitlement begins when confidence turns into expectation.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of what you've accomplished. A person who has spent decades writing, recording, performing, touring, producing, or building a career has every right to recognize the value of that experience. Years of success can establish credibility. A substantial body of work can establish expertise. Recognition can establish status. But none of those things make someone infallible, and none give a person ownership over everyone around them.

At some point, earned confidence can become an expectation of special treatment. That's where earned entitlement enters the conversation. An established artist may have genuinely earned a certain level of respect because there is evidence behind it. There are years of work, accomplishments, contributions, and a history that can be examined. The work exists. The experience exists. The credibility has been established.

But there is another kind of entitlement that can be even more difficult to recognize: perceived entitlement. This is when the expectation of status exists without a substantial body of work to support it. A person may believe they deserve the best opportunities because they consider themselves important. They may have a title, know influential people, have been involved with successful projects, or experienced a brief period of recognition. But perception isn't achievement. A title isn't a body of work. Being connected to successful people isn't the same as creating success yourself. And wanting recognition doesn't mean you've earned it.

That distinction matters because entitlement can exist at both ends of the career spectrum. The established person can begin believing that past accomplishments permanently entitle them to preferential treatment. The person still trying to establish themselves can believe they deserve the same treatment before they've established the body of work that would justify it. Both are forms of entitlement. They simply come from different places.

And then we run into another uncomfortable issue: not every rejection is discrimination. Not every lost opportunity is bias. Sometimes someone else was simply a better fit. Sometimes the work wasn't ready. Sometimes the audience didn't respond. Sometimes the business decision made sense even if the person affected by it didn't like the outcome. That's part of working in a competitive industry.

But sometimes the explanation isn't that simple. Sometimes people are judged before they have been given a legitimate opportunity to demonstrate what they can do. Sometimes relationships matter more than ability. Sometimes assumptions are made based upon someone's background, appearance, age, personality, reputation, or where they came from rather than what they bring to the table. That's when the industry must take a hard look at itself.

The challenge is being honest enough to recognize the difference. The person seeking the opportunity has a responsibility to ask, Was I overlooked because of who I am, or because I wasn't the right person for the opportunity? Those are very different questions. At the same time, the people making the decisions have a responsibility of their own: Did I decide based upon what this person brought to the table, or did I make assumptions before they had the chance to show me?

Neither side gets a free pass.

Fairness doesn't mean everyone gets the same outcome. It means people aren't prevented from having a legitimate opportunity because someone has already decided who they are. That's an important distinction in music because the industry is supposed to reward individuality. We're constantly looking for something different—a different sound, a different voice, a different approach, a different interpretation, a different story.

Yet the business surrounding the music can sometimes become surprisingly resistant to difference. We celebrate originality on stage while sometimes demanding conformity behind the scenes. We tell artists to find their own voice while simultaneously expecting them to fit into an existing idea of what will succeed. We tell people to take risks while rewarding the familiar. And perhaps most importantly, we tell people to believe in themselves while sometimes confusing confidence with entitlement.

There is nothing wrong with an artist believing they belong in the room. In fact, they probably need that belief. But believing you belong in the room is different from believing the room owes you something. Confidence says, give me the opportunity and I'll show you what I can do. Entitlement says, you owe me the opportunity because I believe I'm important. Those statements may sound similar, but they aren't. One is a challenge. The other is an expectation.

Perhaps the healthiest version of the music industry exists somewhere between those two extremes. The established artist remembers that someone once gave them a chance. The emerging artist understands that wanting an opportunity doesn't automatically mean being entitled to one. The person making the decision looks beyond the obvious choice long enough to consider what someone different might bring. And everyone involved remembers that music has never depended upon everyone being the same. It has depended upon someone being willing to bring something new to the table.

Maybe that's ultimately what we should be talking about. Not simply who gets invited. Not simply who has already earned their place. And not simply who believes they deserve one. The real question is whether we're willing to judge people by what they bring to the music—and whether we're honest enough to recognize the difference between earned status and perceived importance.

Because the music industry doesn't need more people who simply believe they belong at the table. It needs people who are willing to bring something worth hearing when they get there.

PRS Standard 24 Review from Guitar Thrills Magazine Tampa, FL The World of Rock and Blues Magazine.

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