The scheme has been announced by London’s Labour Party mayor Sadiq Khan in relation to official busking sites (as reported by Sky News). Unlike some other cities, London encourages busking in set locations and provided buskers compile with the ‘buskers code‘. For example, there are 35 official busking pitches on the Underground with over 1,800 bookable performance slots every week.
With the new scheme, in addition to throwing loose change into a hat or guitar case, appreciative passers by can also pass some money to the performer in the form of a cashless payment using a credit or debit card. The new scheme, reflecting that fewer people are carrying cash these days, has been launched in partnership with Swedish tech firm iZettle (which was purchased for $2.2 billion in May 2018 by U.S. payments giant PayPal).
The way payments are made is through the use of card readers, which plug into smartphones and other devices, and allow people to make tap-to-donate fixed payments.
Commenting on the new payments method and the need to encourage street musicians in general, Sadiq Khan said: “London is a powerhouse of music, having produced artists from Adele to Stormzy, and The xx to Dua Lipa. For London to maintain its status as a global capital of music, it’s vitally important that we support the stars of tomorrow. Busking helps emerging artists to hone their talent and gives them the chance to perform in front of huge numbers of people.”
The announcement of the new scheme follows a trial that ran for two weeks. The BBC spoke with one of the buskers involved with the pilot, Charlotte Campbell. In response to the trail, she said the scheme “”had a significant impact on contributions…More people than ever tap-to-donate whilst I sing, and often, when one person does, another follows.”
