[robertelder]

Here is a video of Joshua Bell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Bell) playing a 3.5 million dollar violin in the subway for 45 minutes and making $32:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

[coldtea]

Well, obviously it doesn't matter how expensive your violin is, or how good you are at your music genre -- it's about how popular the genre/tune is, and when busking, how likable you are (plus, putting on a good entertaining show, with emphasis on the "show" part, e.g. not subtle classical skills).

[personjerry]

A good example of the value of marketing, I believe.

[rhizome]

And location.

[coldtea]

Yeah. He would have faired better in some Vienna subway station around Christmas time...

[leonroy]

When I was a kid (early 90s) learning to play the violin those Strads cost under a million.

Since then their price has rocketed just like every other tangible which has become a hotly contested investment asset.

It's sad because it makes these things less and less likely to get played and more likely to end up in a vault.

Good to see at least a handful of them in use out there.

[pimlottc]

There's a list of all known Stradivarius instruments on Wikipedia and it's actually nice to see that quite a good number of them are made available to musicians via loan programs or specific bequests:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instrumen...

[stouset]

Stringed musical instruments also typically increase in value as they are routinely played. A trained musician, as I understand it, can readily identify an instrument that has lain idle.