When you’re walking down a busy street in any city in the UK, one of the main things you might notice is the sound of a guitar or someone singing in the background.
Busking is a great way for upcoming artists to get their music out there and to play somewhere different outside of their bedrooms. Another benefit of busking in a town or city centre is that if you leave your guitar case open or place a hat upside down on the floor, people will drop their pennies for you.
Even though this won’t necessarily earn artists a living, it's a confidence boost in itself to know that people are willing to give you their spare change for your music. However, increasingly less people are using cash to make their payments. In fact, according to a survey from the Bank of England, 72% were using less cash than they were before the pandemic.
However, does this have a negative impact on buskers?
The obvious downside is that it is increasingly difficult to earn money playing on the streets. However, this doesn’t stop the artists from gaining recognition and popularity. For example, Ed Sheeran grew his fan base by street performing before rising to fame. The prospect of performing in front of massive crowds is a daunting one, but street performing is a great way to start facing that stage fright.
It also allows artists to try out new setlists, new music or lyrics to see which songs turn heads and gain people’s attention before taking them onto a main stage.
In 2018, the London Mayor Sadiq Kahn launched the world’s first busking scheme that uses
contactless payments – street performers began to adapt and this news was a relief to fans of street performers, like myself.
This meant, moving forward, artists can get the well-earned support for their talent and won’t fade away with the cash-holding society we are edging away from. Even though not all artists will have access to a card machine to accept payments, we know there are still many benefits to street performing as a new and amateur musician.
Let's hope the art of busking won’t become a dying feature of our already-struggling high streets.
Edited by Hannah Youds