Whether you're a beginner or seasoned pro, there's always room for improvement when it comes to busking. Amazon has started carrying interesting books written by and for buskers for the worldwide busking community. Both fiction and non-fiction are covered in 6 amazing pages.Topics include making cash doing what you love, various how-to guides, essays about street performing, stepping out into the streets for the first time, enjoying public life, balloon busking, busking beyond borders, busking as a mercenary art, notes from London's underground, fire breathing, a busking bible, European street musicians, surviving half alive, songs sang on Bleecker street and other popular venues - all sharing tips, secrets and dreamy wishes from the pros. There's even a music book for a guide to busking....

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(CAMDEN TOWN) Holy guacamole! Camden has banned amplified street music and now requires unplugged performers to buy licenses.With the help of the Great Golden Kazoo in the sky, buskers have formed a church to sidestep the new busking laws. The Church of the Holy Kazoo has just been formed in the nick of time by buskers exercising the human right to "preach" in public.

It all started when Buskers staged a "street jam" in the heart of Camden to protest against the controversial new rules to license busking in the borough. Street performer Jonny Walker came up with the idea after Camden council's new laws required buskers to pay for licenses. He realized that street preaching is protected under freedom of expression laws so he set up the Church of the Holy Kazoo. It means Jonny...

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(PARIS) Some 1,000 people are expected to compete for 300 prized permits to busk the Paris métro. The auditions, which started Tuesday, are organised by the Paris transport network, the RATP. The 300 successful candidates will be given permission to perform in the underground passages of Paris's underground stations for the next six months, although many more do so illegally.

Interested musicians can apply at 102, rue de Charonne or by emailing RATP at musiciensdumetro@ratp.fr.

Métro busking has sometimes marked the beginning of distinguished musical careers. Keziah Jones, Manu Dibango, Ben Harper all started as buskers.

The auditions continue until the end of October.

www.rfi.fr ...

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Summer of 2013 a couple friends and i will be buying greyhound discovery passesw and traveling the us for two months. i have plans on bringing a guitar and perfoming a couple 30 minute sets in each town i visit. with the cash i make from this i am hoping to be able to me my food expenses and be able to afford another discovery pass by the time the first one expires.
I'd like to know if anyone else is interested in tagging along or maybe would like me to come through their town. Discovery passes are aroung $560 before tax and are good for 2 months. i feel this is an interesting way to tour, see the country, meet people, and have a good time. Be aware that you can only bring two bags without having to pay an extra fee and your instrument case will count as a bag.

It's survival of the fittest as some resort to dirty tactics in face of stiffer competition.

Outwit, outplay, outlast.
That motto from TV reality series Survivor also holds true for the buskers in Orchard Road.

The current economic downturn is certainly not music to their ears as they have seen takings drop in recent months.

If that's not enough of a worry, they also have to fend off competition from both legitimate and illegal buskers.

But more of that later. For now, the downturn is a more worrisome test of survivor skills.

Take the case of Mr Donald Wee, 51, who strums the guitar near Shaw House.

'More people are donating coins instead of $5 or $10 notes,' he lamented.

He used to earn about $100 in two hours but can net only $40 now. The former security guard went into busking four years ago when he could not find another job after he was arrested for fighting....

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