Tip A Busker With Your Smartphone

Street musicians are a ubiquitous phenomenon in cities across the world. A new generation of smartphone apps enable you to tip buskers whose tunes you like.

Whoever has been to Amsterdam is probably familiar with the blind man and his musical organ that is performing at Dam Square. But did you know that George Ezra even wrote a song about him? Street performers make up for a large share of the daily urban atmosphere and are quite popular.

One of Amsterdam’s most famous buskers

Buskeroo is an app that lets you locate your favorite buskers, learn more about them and provide them with a tip. Imagine: you are out on the streets and you stumble upon a busker whose music you like, but you can not provide a tip since you don’t have any change. What to do? It’s really simple: just open Buskeroo, locate the busker, read more and give a tip by using your phone. As the app is linked to PayPal, buskers who have created an account can easily receive tips from passers who have enjoyed their performance.

With Tip Jar Tunes, Tip5 and appLOUD, similar tip-ideas are already available. However, what distinguishes Buskeroo and makes it such a fun app, is both its usability and all extra features it offers. Besides the possibility to read about a busker and providing a tip, you can also share its profile with other friends, or see when its next performance will be. In case you really want to impress you friends, you can even book a busker for your party.

What is intersting about Buskeroo is that it has the potential to connect people that otherwise would never ‘meet’. Although the app is currently only available in London, it will be interesting to see if it works and could be used in other cities.