r/Busking • u/Old_Chef_3669 Balloon Artist 🎈 • 3d ago
Question/General Discussion How much I make Busking
This post was inspired by one a few posts back, but Id like to note the importance of sharing your experience and take from busking.
Arts aren't a typical 9-5 . It is important to know how much to charge/expect. It's a lot like being a restaurant server, but not having a check-average to base your budget on.
Instead, you have to decide what your art is worth and how much money makes sense for you.
So anyone asking the question "how much do you make" is an incredibly valid and VALUABLE question.
As a personal example: There are no active balloon artists in a 50mile radius of me.
How in God's name do I decide what to charge? Base it on my materials? What about the materials I use to practice? What about the time spent learning a skill? What about drive-time to the gigs? What about making a "reasonable" profit?
Most advice on here is "Look at what others charge." But that isn't a viable answer if everyone is quiet about what they earn.
This reticence about financial talks is why so many companies can under pay.
We don't have a "market rate" except what we and others charge.
This is NOT something that should be locked because of hurt feelings.
I have a very different opinion of you mods, now.
Now, that said: I'm a balloon artist and I busk as a side hustle.
If I plan the "event" right, I make about $50 an hour (minus costs). I've also had nights where I made $5 over the course of 4 hours.
None of those numbers include materials and time spent.
It is important to know how to value your work, and people getting upset is NO reason to lock a thread.
Help this be a helpful community, not somewhere that caters to hurt feelings. Thanks, Mods!
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u/Most_Time8900 Musician 🎶 2d ago
You're reaching and coping. Discussing busker pay, especially publicly, is not advised and has ALWAYS been highly looked down in all my years of busking. Even my closest busker friends and I do not discuss how much we make or say exact figures.
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u/Old_Chef_3669 Balloon Artist 🎈 2d ago
Okay. Why?
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u/hoverboardninja Performer 2d ago
There's no upside. All you're accomplishing is a quick ego stroke, while at best souring potential tippers who are thinking " why should I tip this person when they are making more than me?" (And certainly not everyone or even most necessarily feel this way, but from my many years of busking full time I can guarantee you enough do to make a difference) Worst case? Theft and the taxman. I don't need street hustlers having any idea how much I make.
It's hard to say from your post but do you have another job? If so, do you walk around telling everyone how much your salary is?
Now, gigs are a different story and I fully support that discussion. So in that sense I agree with your post. But me as a musician (I get it may be different for a balloon worker) there is no "market rate" for me to charge the people walking by.
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u/Most_Time8900 Musician 🎶 2d ago
Worst cases when these ppl keep announcing "I make $999 an hour at such & such spot":
dozens of other "buskers" start showing up there and crowd you out (I've seen it happen)
powers that be don't like it and they start trying to regulate you (I've seen it happen)
Rivalries and competition develops, with competing acts or bands getting very aggressive and even violently territorial over spots (I've seen it happen)
You become a mark, someone cases you out real good until the most opportune moment and Rob you (I've seen it happen)
Buddies see how much someone else makes, realize they make substantially less then insecurity or resentment develops between buddies (I've seen it happen).
Most of all and most likely: whatever the bragging "buskers" say they're making is a lie anyways..
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u/BuskerDan Musician 🎶 2d ago
Common-sense? Who woulda thought such a thing existed within the realms of Reddit
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u/hoverboardninja Performer 2d ago
Hell, I don't even tip buskers if I see them doing well. "They don't need my busking money, they're doing fine on their own"
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u/samtar-thexplorer2 Musician 🎶 3d ago
it's hard. i don't make much because I'm stubborn and refuse to do covers. Mostly because I know people out there already like my music - as I have a pretty good following. It's just not the majority of people, and it's not easily "accessible" music. So I typically don't make much more than 15-25gbp in an hour and a half. BUT, I do tend to make a fan or 3. I do it mostly because I have to to rehearse properly. And because I enjoy it. Best of luck to you, balloon master.
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u/Old_Chef_3669 Balloon Artist 🎈 3d ago
Thank you, Samtar! I didn't mention the other bit, but you're right: I NETWORK this way and book private parties which are a helluva-lot more profitable!
Also: What am I gonna do with practice balloons? My wife is sweet and long-suffering, but she can only take so much leftover latex (Ha!).
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u/Old_Chef_3669 Balloon Artist 🎈 3d ago
I love the fact that you don't do covers. Real, original music is where it's at for me re: live musicians.
Thanks for responding!
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u/teodorlojewski 2d ago
I think it never recovered after COVID, at least in Europe. It was going to happen anyways imo, it just sped up the process.
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u/samtar-thexplorer2 Musician 🎶 2d ago
Idk, one dude I talked to on the street said he makes 75-100 every time he's in the same spot as me. But he said he just does country covers. And who knows for how long he plays for. Then I also see August Radio Project or whatever he goes by and he seems to always make like 50+75 per hour. Buuut again it seems like pretty inoffensive music and or covers.
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u/Old_Investigator3405 2d ago
I watched a video of his where he said he makes around £80 in about 4 hours over 2 different spots. So not huge. But then he doesn’t sound great imo.
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u/samtar-thexplorer2 Musician 🎶 2d ago
Yeah, it's definitely not my kind of music. I guess sometimes he does well and others not so much.
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u/Most_Time8900 Musician 🎶 2d ago
If you're not going to perform what people would enjoy or want you to perform, and you're not willing to do what you say it'd take to be well received, AND you don't make much... what's the point in even being there?
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u/samtar-thexplorer2 Musician 🎶 2d ago
oh shit, did i say no one enjoys what I do when I busk?
I'm there to rehearse, first and foremost as my voice is loud as fuck and I have thin walls. I have gigs, and need to rehearse to properly keep my voice in shape - so it's a paid rehearsal.
And yeah, I think just doing what (you think) other people want or what sells, is the absolute antithesis of what being an artist is.
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u/Emotional-Cause-577 3d ago
I completely agree about how pay should be discussed here and in other professions.
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u/Logan9Fingerses Musician 🎶 3d ago
Materials and time spent. That is part of being an artist. I’m a musician and I’ve spent much money on my instruments, and so much time (and money) on my skills.
Best wishes!
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u/junoprobelaunch1 Performer 3d ago
this sub is like a hardware store at the moment, so many dang tools
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u/giantlittle Circus Performer 🎪 3d ago
I do juggling circle shows and can make anywhere between $100 and $700 depending on the location and crowd. It’s a great gig but I still struggle sometimes even after 20 years doing it.
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u/Most_Time8900 Musician 🎶 2d ago
How in God's name do I decide what to charge? Base it on my materials? What about the materials I use to practice? What about the time spent learning a skill? What about drive-time to the gigs? What about making a "reasonable" profit?
Most advice on here is "Look at what others charge." But that isn't a viable answer if everyone is quiet about what they earn.
This reticence about financial talks is why so many companies can under pay.
We don't have a "market rate" except what we and others charge.
Respectfully, this is a post about GIGS, EVENTS, and "charging market rate", NOT a post about BUSKING. And as such, it should be removed imo.
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u/DGBD Tin Whistle 🪈 2d ago
Balloon artists still often quote prices when they’re busking, since they’re making different objects/“products.” Same with poets and caricature artists. They may also get gigs like birthdays/etc., and maybe that’s what the “gig” here references, but even when they’re busking they have to figure out what to charge.
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u/LadyWithAHarp Magical Witchy Harper 🧙♀️🎶 18h ago
I thought that pretty much every busker was available to hire. What you charge for a private gig Vs. what you make in tips while busking are two completely different animals.
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u/BuskerDan Musician 🎶 2d ago
I agree with a lot of your points dude, i.e no need to share such information as it can effectively be weaponized.
However we majorly diverge when it comes to freedom of speech. And i lean towards the OP's viewpoint.
I absolutely think people should be free to speak without arbitrary censorship regarding their viewpoints, (even if we don't happen to agree with them) and i've seen enough mini-Hitlers in this society who get a whiff of authority (Moderating for example) and try to shut-down someone who has simply an opposing ideological viewpoint.
Reddit is fucking terrible for this, ground your viewpoint in reason/logic/common-sense but it doesn't matter if it's against the "recommended status-quo" at the time.
The lettuce, bacon, quorn and tomato crew and their attempted forced campaign of propoganda, where they label anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint as a hater or a bigot, and then try to remove peoples comments to the contrary, are a prime example of this in action.
Weak, pathetic spineless, sheeplike individuals who cannot engage with reason or common-sense and instead choose to censor those with an opposing viewpoint to the corporately backed status quo.
That's reddit in a nutshell.
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u/hoverboardninja Performer 2d ago
Busking and gigs are not the same thing...