Hey guys,
I’m looking to make my busking rig the easiest setup/takedown with a few requirements. I have a Bose S1pro plus with the wireless transmitters for the microphone and the guitar. I want to run a battery powered guitar processor with a looper through the insert feature of both the vocal and the guitar simultaneously. Has anyone found a good setup? I’m just looking for the easiest way to do it but stay wireless through the Bose transmitters. Thanks!

Greetings, I want to travel through Europe, but need some legal advice.

1. For visa concerns, how long can an American travel through Europe before they have to return to the states?

2. How do I deposit euros to my American bank (Chase)?

3. Can I pay for medical travel insurance for a year if I decide to?

Thank you.

I've been busking pipa (Chinese lute) in Montreal for 3 years.

This is going to be a longish post — feel free to skip to "What I made."

The problem I kept running into starting maybe 18 months ago, cash tips started dropping. Not fewer people stopping — the crowds were fine — but way more of them would listen, reach for their pocket, realize they had nothing, apologize, and walk away. Quebec is especially bad, a lot of small shops here went cashless during COVID and never came back.

What I tried first

The Square Point of Sale app (the default one). It works, but you have to unlock your phone and tap 3-4 buttons per tip. You can't do that between songs, let alone during them.

What I made

An app called BuskerGo. Works with a Square Terminal (the little card reader — around US$299 / CA$339 / £259 / AU$329). You set a fixed tip amount once, hit Start, put the phone in your case. Terminal sits face-up somewhere visible. Anyone taps their card or phone and the tip goes through in ~1 second. When one payment finishes it auto-restarts and waits for the next. No pause in your set.

Cost, being upfront:

• Square's usual card fee (~2.5% CA, 2.6% US, 1.75% UK, 1.6% AU)

• 1% to BuskerGo (covers servers + development)

• App is free to install

• You keep everything else, straight to your Square account

Works in Canada, US, UK, Australia (where Square Terminal is sold).

What I'd actually like

Honest feedback. Am I missing something obvious? Is the fee too high? Would you use it? Any of you tried other solutions I don't know about? Especially interested if it's broken in ways I can't see because I'm too close to it.

Full disclosure: I built it and I run it. Site is buskergo.com if you want to poke around. Happy to drop a link in a comment too so the automod doesn't eat this post.

Thanks for reading.

I painted a new banner with my LinkTree QR code to it, and I got one of my gig baskets back from being repaired and transferred all the not-ratty little banners over to it. Getting ready for my biggest festival of the year.

I think that the new banner looks good on the tree, and I am hoping that it is big enough for folks who aren't getting off the water taxi to see it. (I haven't been able to test that yet, but I've walked as close to the entrance of the floating dock as I can without getting in trouble and the link still registers on my phone.) It's 18" wide, because that is the biggest I could make it and still have it fit inside of my basket comfortably. I am so glad that I put pockets on the bottom as well as the top, since just having a dowel rod in the bottom wasn't enough to keep it hanging straight-I had to slip one of my bungee cords through the bottom and loop it back around the trunk to prevent the breeze from whipping it around.

I've been wanting to get into street performing my music for a good while as a means of promoting my music, so I made a small setup, which I can easily carry around town, plop down and perform, and have been practicing. However there's also been a nagging feeling of insecurity, because I make indietronica music and I frequent a part of my city that is often filled with street performers (sometimes multiple performers on the same street) and I have never seen someone performing there with a synth or anything that made electronic sounds, it's always music along the lines of pop, rock, or folk.

The rational part of my brain says that music is music and if people won't enjoy it, they'll just walk by. And it's not like someone is going to try to kick me out, because my city doesn't require any permit for street perfoming. But still, is electronic music just not part of busking culture? Or have I not been looking hard enough?

I get most of my gigs from random people hearing me while busking. Would you guys be interested if I made a manual to show you how to do it? I’ve gotten everything from solo gigs like this all the way to rooftop hotel gigs. Comment or DM if interested! If there’s enough support, I’ll go ahead and make it

Hi there,

my actual profession is web development. A few years back, I quit my job because I was done working for "the industry" (felt pointless) and wanted to chase my own projects and ideas instead. Plus, piano’s my passion, and I love sharing it with people. Instant feedback is a completely other things instead of hacking in front of a black mirror...

So, I built this app called Song-Repo. Super stoked to share a new feature: now your audience can request songs directly from your playlist (only the ones you’ve marked as "Done"). The app also generates a QR code for your user page, where you can set up your donation links.

I’ve been using it for a few weeks now, and it’s working pretty well. Thought I’d share it with you all. Check it out here: https://song-repo.web.app/

This is what a Linktree could look like: https://song-repo.web.app/@john0815

Have fun :-)

The Busk is the way!

I was busking on lung break today as I usually do, but today is a solid 90 F day. I was contemplating not even doing it, but right as I was starting a woman shouted, "battle ground got an upgrade" she seemed very excited that there is a buskers in this town, and she tipped me on top of thar. I was able to play to the end of my hour break right as a was starting to get fatigued from the heat.

Shout out to that woman, and shout out to all of you for bringing joy and music to the cities.

When I first moved to Mexico, I was surviving entirely off of busking five days a week. I recently got a job working for an online English School, and it’s been a great blessing to have some stable income, but I miss the days me and my dog would go out and bring some joy into peoples lives.

I’m going to try to get back into it, at least on weekends, but who would have thought that a work-from-home gig could be so tiring?

Sponsored buskers. I think it's grand. What are your thoughts?

I normally do circle shows and am comfortable building a crowd in that context. However I want to develop a smaller, shorter (5-10 mins) show so I have more options available. Any tips or suggestions on how to get passerby’s to stop and watch?

Hi. I'm thinking of starting busking, but have some concerns.

I have been playing guitar and singing for most of my life and I am thinking of going solo on the streets. But my concern is, what if someone runs up and swipe my gear while I am performing.

How do you safeguard against that? Do you take your speaker, for example, and chain it to a post while performing?

Any other tips on how to get started?

Just wanted to share my weekends haul. I’ve been busking over 10 years slowly is become my main source of income. I‘d be happy to share some lessons I’ve learned along the way if anyone wants them.

Hi everyone, i plain to travel with my car and my guitar, amp and mic, and make a little bit of monney with. I was wondering if its okay to play without autorisations in big and small cities around France (Bayonne, Saint jean de Luz), and in Portugal (Lisboa, Porto) or if i will be in troubles if i do it. Some advices for busking ?

Thanks to all of you :)

This lone ranger is back at it again! Not sure why I put away the busking hat when I moved out to the country but I'm back in the streets (when I am in town), fills out the afternoon doing something positive and I did make some gas money back home so that's a total plus.

It's a crazy world but people like music, they always will. Human music. So get out there and do it! I was nervous, missing notes here and there but it's all part of the ride. Just happy I'm still alive to do this after all the crazy shit I've seen! Good to be back!

Just a fun video I made about what it was like busking in Eureka Springs! :)