Terms Governing Concert Voice Loss
A transcript has been prepared of the informal proceedings in which concert attendees accept, in advance, conditions they will fully understand only the following morning.
HEARING TRANSCRIPT Re: Terms Governing Concert Voice Loss Proceedings conducted informally; no stenographer was present
The hearing convenes to establish the terms under which concert voice loss was incurred and to determine whether the terms were understood at the time of acceptance.
Q: Were you aware, upon purchasing the ticket, that singing every word of every song for three hours at a volume exceeding conversational norms could result in temporary vocal impairment?
A: No.
Q: Were you aware at the venue entrance?
A: No.
Q: Were you aware at the start of the second song?
A: Not in a way that changed anything.
Q: The record indicates that you sang continuously through the opening act, the main set, and all three encores, and that you described the experience, in the moment, as worth it. Does this characterization still hold?
A: It holds with some qualifications.
Q: The qualifications being?
A: The meeting I have this morning.
The hearing notes the following for the record. The terms governing concert voice loss have never been written down. They are agreed to through conduct: purchasing a ticket, arriving at the venue, and choosing to sing constitutes acceptance. The agreement is tacit and complete.
The absurd rule is that the cost of the experience is deferred to a business day, where it is distributed across colleagues, clients, and anyone who asks a question requiring a verbal answer longer than two syllables.
The contradiction is that the voice was expended as a form of participation in something that did not require participation. The concert would have proceeded regardless.
The hearing finds no breach of any term. The terms were accepted. The voice will return.
Transcript closed.