Question

What advantages and disadvantages did Baroque composers have in the patronage system?

Answer 1

Well for one thing they were being supplied with a steady stream of work. One of the biggest patrons of music over time has been the Church. This also brought with it some issues, because the church only wanted certain things. Obviously there's two hugely different categories, being sacred and secular. The church offered funding to composers in exchange for music that worked well for them. This limited the music composers could write, one example being the tritone. Tritones are intervals three whole steps apart, and are quite dissonant. The church completely banned the use of this interval, labeling it as "the devil's interval".

Answer 2

That's just one example, but it might be something worth taking a look at