This new app lets you donate to buskers using a cashless online service

BuSK lets audience send remote donations to street performers using their credit or debit cards

The days of throwing spare change into a hat could soon be over with the launch of a new app to pay buskers.

BuSK, released today, lets audiences link up their credit or debit cards to send remote donations to street performers.

It also provides information about the artists and how to discover more about them. Street performers using the app will have cards informing passers-by.

Nick Broad, who co-created the app for the Busking Project, said buskers are professionals who need to earn a living.

The minimum donation is £5, with the busker receiving 90 per cent of each payment, five per cent going to the project and the rest to payment platform Stripe. Data from the app will be gathered in the hope of showing local councils the economic benefits of street performances in the wake of recent clampdowns on licences.

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Mr Broad said: “The old joke is that buskers are ‘beggars with a gimmick’ but Ed Sheeran, Pierce Brosnan and KT Tunstall all started off as buskers.

“What we are trying to do is show that being a street performer is a legitimate and accessible way of earning a living. We wanted to devise a form of payment and help them with social networking.”

Mr Broad admits the minimum fee may put some people off, but he said: “It’s not charity, it’s a live performance by a professional and something that should be respected.”

Charlotte Campbell, 25, a guitarist and singer from Hillingdon, earns up to 70 per cent of her income from playing for up to five hours at a time on the South Bank, with the rest from bookings secured after people hear her busk.

She said: “Londoners come up to me and say they really enjoyed it but don’t have any cash on them. Now they can donate using the app and find out more about who I am and find my stuff, which furthers their connection with me.

“I like that it puts a value on what we are doing.”

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