Hey fellow accordion busker! I find my busking income has diminished vastly with age, despite my skill rising. Everyone wants to toss a coin at the 10 year old playing decent accordion. Not so much the 30 year old playing good accordion.
Not to say that this is your issue, but I find it helps if I dress up a lot.
I have nice, embroidered pearl snaps, custom cowboy boots, fancy hats, and a couple nice vests.
That is to say, it's pretty easy for folks to confuse me with panhandlers. I have no problem with folks panhandling, but my tips are way better if I look like a performer.
Are you using Venmo for tips? I used to have an itch for digital tip jars, but never figured out the right set of features to really drive adoption...
This was well before Patreon, and PayPal was pretty much the only API game in town. Since then, I've felt like Venmo handles 9/10ths of the live performance problem (unleash the appreciation (money) locked in digital form).
I never have cash on me and when I see a QR code I usually give 2-5x more than I would if I was carrying cash on me because it feels weird to "drop in" $1-4 on Venmo and I guilt myself into more.
Anyway, accordion OP you should get a QR code for tips :)
TBH, I am not super on point about that-- on some level I still rationalize busking as a mode of practice where I don't have to annoy the neighbors in my apartment.
I should probably look into that... it seems like a reasonable idea.
I will say, the one time that someone asked me directly about it, when I told them I didn't have venmo they gave me a $100 bill. Not to say that will ever be repeated.
