Natalia Paruz, who uses her musical saw to serenade straphangers, isn’t receiving as much money as she formerly did.
Her gold-colored tip bucket barely displayed a few dollar notes and a few pennies halfway through a three-hour performance during the afternoon rush on a recent Thursday at the Herald Square station in midtown Manhattan, making it evident.
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I get a lot of people who say, “I love your music, I want to give, but I’m sorry, I don’t carry cash,” Paruz, also known as the Saw Lady, said.
As a result, she started showing commuters QR codes for the digital payment apps Venmo and PayPal so they could give her digital tips.
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Street performers’ business is shifting as a result of the decrease in cash payments. In order to earn money from their performances, magicians and musicians are increasingly using digital payments as the amount of money in their tip jars or guitar cases is decreasing.
According to a Capital One study, almost half of American people never use cash in a normal week. In the last year, about 70% of Americans made few or no transactions with cash. The bank predicts that by 2027, 94% of U.S. transactions would be cashless, with 87% of all transactions in 2024 being cashless.
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According to Yale economist David Argente, cash still dominates among older and low-income Americans. According to Federal Reserve data, the rate of cash use among Americans aged 55 and over is over twice that of those aged 18 to 24.
Although the Federal Reserve suggests that consumers in the US are more likely to pay street performers with cash for amounts under $25, there is no comprehensive data on how Americans pay them. According to Paruz and other performers, busking still mostly brings in hard currency. According to Paruz, cash still accounts for 70% of her tips. Just 5% of New York blues keyboardist Gabriel Aldort’s tips are digital, according to the musician who performs in the city’s subways and ferry terminals.
Aldort posts large QR codes for apps like Venmo and CashApp, but claims that his subway audience doesn’t utilize them very often.
I believe that most people in New York, both tourists and temporary residents, have money, he remarked.
However, artists have seen that payment applications are providing them with a growing portion of their gratuities. Chadd Wacky For twelve years, Chad Deitz, a stunt comic from Boston who performs backflips off pogo sticks in Northeastern locations, has been experimenting with digital payments. It now accounts for 30 to 40 percent of his tips.
According to Deitz, you will not be able to exist if you do not take digital payments.
According to a statement from Venmo general manager Alexis Sowa, digital payment apps are meant to be more dependable, recognizable, and user-friendly means of earning money for gig workers like buskers. A request for response from a Cash App representative was not answered.
Danny Tangelo, a touring magician who performs around Western states, stated that although digital tipping is handy, it has also had an impact on audience tipping, and not always in a positive way. He discovered that cash tips are frequently greater than digital tips.
Additionally, digital donations are not as visible. According to Deitz, people are more likely to give cash or change when they observe others doing so.
According to Deitz, “I do believe that there is a little bit of psychology of people walking forward and saying, Thank you, because they might have tipped midshow and then walk away because they might see the QR code from a distance.” However, after witnessing those individuals go, those who did not pay said, “Well, I guess it’s okay to walk away.”
Digital payments, in Paruz’s opinion, make busking less intimate because people avoid approaching her and leaving a tip instead. According to her, Cash encouraged communication. Individuals would pause and converse with us.
When performers process a lot of digital payments, apps like Venmo and Cash App also take a tiny part of the money received for products and services.
An option is busk.co, a nonprofit website dedicated to buskers that enables them to get tips via credit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. While working on a documentary about street performers in 2012, Berlin-based filmmaker Nick Broad began constructing the website. According to him, digital payments ensure that buskers receive fair compensation.
According to Broad, using a cashless payment mechanism to donate $1 is as simple as giving $1 million. It’s not the same when you’re pulling cash out of your wallet and searching for change because you may believe it’s worth $89, $10, $15, or whatever.
However, Broad claims that in contrast to nations like the UK, Canada, and Australia, fewer performers have signed up for upbusk.coin in the US. He claims that might be the case due to the greater popularity of apps like Venmo and Cash App in this area.
Performers are still having difficulty, despite the fact that digital payments have helped buskers compensate for a drop in cash tips. Paruz claims that her earnings from cash and digital tips have decreased since she started performing in the 1990s, while Deitz has received the lowest payments ever at several shows this year.
Americans in general are sick of being tipped. According to a survey conducted this spring, almost 40% of Americans believe that tipping culture is out of hand. As a result, tips for many tipped workers in other industries have decreased.
In addition, audiences will watch street performers if they wish to save money due to the growing costs of rent and food, according to Deitz.
That implies that as long as you pay them, entertainers like him don’t care how you do it. According to Deitz, two children and a white picket fence cannot be supported by a $2 tip.
However, money has one more advantage for magician Tangelo.
He said, “I have a trick where money appears inside fruit.” Venmo and Cash App don’t allow you to do it.
