How much can you make busking? (The Secrets to Street Performing as a living)

So today I was just looking through the messages in my dance crew’s group chat; and I couldn’t help but notice while I was eaves dropping that a little debate broke out. “Bro, we aren’t making as much money as before, we have too many rules”, followed by “No, you aren’t listening to what I said, that’s why we aren’t making money.” Anyways, as usual, Tyrael had the answers to all their problems, and for those of you who believe Tyrael doesn’t hold the key, here’s a random disclaimer…

Now let’s begin.

Ok, so after busking for the past 8 months, possibly longer with my own crew, I have come to a few conclusions. If you want to make a living from this, you best make sure your group is on point, and are communicating well. One of my friends from a different crew told me his crew make around £100 each a night. Now I don’t know how many hours they busk for a night, and I havn’t seen their routine, but he told me it isn’t to do with their dancing, it was mostly the way they communicate, and the songs they played. My crew on the other hand, when we first started, I remember making around £30 each a day, for 2 hours work. Yer, that sounds pretty nice right, but we were there at peak times, and peak times only last around 2 hours a day, so it was aiiiggghtttt!

Recently, I havn’t been busking too much due to an injury. Now I am hearing through the grapevine that my crew are making quite a bit less than before. This doesn’t make sense to me, surely you should improve and make more money, but after busking once again, I noticed that we weren’t following the same formula as before. We had a lot of people in our crew, some were focused on making money, and others focused on just having fun. Unfortunately, that was the downfall; you need to all be on the same page. Finding the right balance is key, here is a list of tactics that I have noticed to be pretty useful along the way.

1. Communication: This is number one, because it is the top secret as to how to make plenty of money while busking. You could be the most amazing dancer, or musician, if you can’t communicate with the audience, why do they want to give their money to just another dance crew or musician. They don’t give a f**k about you, they just got a free show #winning. HOWEVER, If you directly interact with somebody watching, and you make them smile or laugh, 90% of the time, they will feel bad walking away without giving you anything. So use that little method, to trick your entire audience into feeling like you’re their friend. Sure, it seems fake, but only because people don’t usually interact in day to day life.

2. Support each other: So this sounds pretty much elementary, but I’ll tell you, in the past 2 months, we had a shift in the way we interact with each other, and it has been our downfall. To all of my dancers out there, if somebody in your crew messes up, what the f**k are you doing laughing, and shouting “CRASH, CRASH, CRASH”. Sure, it doesn’t look professional if they mess up, but it looks 10x worse if the people who are supposed to be your brothers are laughing at it, and making it bigger than it is. Trust me, it’s happened while I was busking, somebody crashed, and next dudes were shouting “Crash”. Well… There goes another £10. Nobody wants to support you if you are making somebody else feel bad, ever heard of empathy?

3. Practice: If you are going for routines, or if you are a musician, you need to make sure your s**t is on point. How are you gonna step foot into Trafalgar Square, start playing a saxophone, and get every note wrong? That’s self explanatory, you aint making enough for a bus home. Alternatively, if you step into Bond Street (That’s where my people busk, Fridays at 8pm, come check us out), and a routine is sloppy, and out of time… Just don’t do the routine. Simple as that, you are hurting your own performance, stick to something simple that everybody can master, not something crazy that some will master and others will flop.

4. Bad Language/hurtful Jokes: Everybody loves a good hurtful joke… BUT, we only like them in the comfort of their own home, among our own friends. Not a bunch of dudes in the street, who you have never seen before. One of the boys I dance with is on the chubby side, so when communicating with the audience, they would joke with the audience about him being fat. This dude even started hiding in the back so he wouldn’t get picked on, but, like clockwork he still got called out. Until a single brave soul stepped up and told them to stop that… That brave soul… Was I *Puts shades on, walks away into the sunset*. Ok I’m back, the audience can see with their own eyes that there was a problem in that scenario, so obviously nobody found it funny, just awkward. Don’t make the audience feel awkward if you want their wallet.

5. Music: Finally, this one should have been number one. The type of music you play has to appeal to the masses. If you are playing some Gangster ish like F**k the Police by NWA, I guarantee people are gonna walk passed your show quickly without looking. Also the local committee or whatever those people are called will come over and ask you to turn down your music. Play some Gangnam Style, or Happy by Pharrell… Watch the swarms of tourists run over to watch, and throw money at you. You will even have the police smiling and watching, as long as you aren’t blocking foot traffic. The only downside is, a musician can only sell out for so long before they reach breaking point. If you are a classical sax player, and forced to play Justin Bieber – Baby, 5 hours a day; you’re gonna end up committing suicide.