I took it as just an illustration of human snobbery for the sake of snobbery. There are similar experiments. I believe Penn and Teller did an experiment on bot

I took it as just an illustration of human snobbery for the sake of snobbery. There are similar experiments. I believe Penn and Teller did an experiment on bottled water to see if anyone at a fancy restaurant could taste how much better artisanal bottled water was. All the customers commented on how much more refreshing the water was when in actuality it was all hose water filled in from the back. There was this other experiment, I can't recall from where, where they tested if audiophiles could here the difference between an MP3 and regular uncompressed sound. None of them could tell the difference even though they all claimed before hand that they could. >Moreover, it's a collective ritual. We don't go to the concert hall just because of the music and because of Joshua Bell, we also go because it's nice to treat yourself to an evening out, to dress nicely, and to enjoy the fancy atmosphere of the theatre with its, say, baroque frescoes or modern architectural design. Joshua Bell in that context is literally not the same as Joshua Bell in a subway, otherwise why would he dress nicely for the concert? And you know what, there is nothing wrong with that. Theatre and music have always been this way. You illustrate my point perfectly and you partially admit my point. You say: It's not JUST about the music which makes sense. But I say, it's more than that. It's actually NOT about the music AT ALL, because the music is much more clear when listened to digitally in a private space with no distractions. People can likely get that for free with a pair of good headphones. When people buy a concert ticket they pay for the "night out" not the music. Just replace the music with some other snobbish artsy activity and they'd still go because it's never really about the activity itself. I shouldn't just focus on rich people snobbery it happens with any type of concert or music festival or whatever. It's never about the music in actuality it's only about the music in appearance. Everyone lies to themselves about why they go.