The sad fact of the matter is that walking out in your local city or town and playing some music might not be completely hassle-free, and could even be regarded as illegal in some circumstances. Fortunately, in most circumstances it is considered perfectly legal but there are conditions, things you need to prepare and consider before going busking.

Busking Legalities in Your Area

There are areas of the world where Busking is a complete no-no, these are rare but do exist. In most areas it is considered free speech but it usually isn’t that simple, and you may need to get a busking permit or license. You need to find out about the permissions required from your local authorities, who may ask you to get a permit or written permission to perform on the streets.

The Line Between Busking and Street Selling

One area that makes Busking laws even more of a grey area is the involvement of money. We don’t all busk for money and it isn’t the only motivation people have, but there is no denying that it is a benefit and a lot of us make our cash not only through donations but selling CDs too. If you are selling or even open to donations, check with your authorities if this will change anything and whether you need a street vendors permit instead of or as well as your busking permissions. These may be inexpensive but it is worth paying to cover yourself.

Noise Level

Another thing that you need to consider when you are finding out whether busking is illegal in your area is the volume at which you will be playing. Noise pollution and other charges could always be drawn upon you if you are exceeding audio levels that are permissible and this may vary depending on what time you are busking.

Conclusion

I’m sorry to say that it is a real grey area, but there are usually areas you can find to go busking. There are a few charges you could get heaped on you if you do go busking without your research, but in most areas you will be okay. You should definitely as I said above contact your local authorities and ask, and even if told ‘it’s fine’ on the telephone, try and get written permission to go busking and details of what you are allowed to do and where, this means if police do end up stopping and questioning you you have your a** covered.

Busking is a popular pastime and a largely encouraged cultural activity in the UK and in general Britain is very tolerant of buskers. Here is our guide to busking in the UK

Busking Locations in the UK

The UK is full of great towns and some really large cities, which can provide great places to busk. My local town here in the East of England has quite a small population but we do have a community of buskers, venture into the big cities and in certain spots you expect a busker to be there playing guitar or performing in some other way. City streets are laced with buskers in many cultural areas and we even boast some full time buskers, so you can have great success if you too partake in this activity. Of course, a lot of people want to busk in the capital cities, London especially, there are quite restrictive rules about Busking in some parts of London but it certainly can be done and is probably the best place to ply your trade in terms of profit from busking.

Busking Laws in the UK

Busking is popular in the UK but is restricted and there are certain hoops to jump through. In the words of the ask the police website:

“”Busking in itself is not illegal although some local authorities have passed byelaws prohibiting busking. If you want to busk it is worth contacting your local authority to see if any bi-laws have been passed with regards to busking. Children under 14 years may not busk.”

Some places will require a busking permit or license, some will require written permission from the authorities and some will be happy for you to play away to your hearts content on the streets with nothing in place. It can be a pain if you are traveling but the safest way to be on the right side of the law is to seek the advice of the local authorities. An amazing recent case saw buskers having to have 20 songs to play in Dublin, Ireland, and that they had to be a certain distance from other buskers, see the BBC News story.

Famous UK Buskers

The UK boasts loads of amazing musicians and many have even taken to the streets to engage in a spot of busking. Check out our list of musicians who have been seen busking in Britain (you can find out for yourself on youtube).

Fran Healy of Travis
Newton Faulkner
James Morrison
The Feeling
Carl Barat of The Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things
Billy Bragg (Live at the “Big Busk”)
Paul McCartney (I forget which band he is from, some sort of insect? )

If a busker were to make a list of his or her most desired places to ply their trade and strum their tunes, London is a city that would feature heavily among a lot of people’s shortlists. Where better to play out than a City with a rich heritage and tradition of music, and the capital of the country that brought us many of the best bands throughout history including a certain mop chopped foursome in the sixties. Not only is London vast, it is full of cool streets and places with a really great atmosphere to share your music with the world, and hey, you may even get noticed by a musical somebody if you’re good enough.

So is it easy to busk in London?

The short answer, unfortunately, is a resounding no. You cant just pitch up and play, at least. There are quite a lot of rules, regulations and hoops to jump through in order to busk anywhere in England, and busking in London is (as you might expect) tougher than anywhere else. First off, you’ll need a busking license to be certain that legally you’re covered, but some areas of London don’t even deem this enough, and Busking is not permitted at all in huge chunks of England’s capital city. Also, even if you have found a safe area to ply your trade, don’t be surprised if you end up getting hassled by the police even after you have shown your license. This can be an embarrassing and off-putting experience for a performer, so make sure you’re thick skinned in the more policed areas.

Another difficulty is finding a spot, there are a lot of street performers around and people who will consider a certain street corner or area their busking ground, you might find it difficult to find a good spot that isn’t already taken. In Camden, a cultural hot spot in LDN, Buskers have to pass an audition, yes, an AUDITION, to be allowed to play out their songs there. If you make it through it can be profitable and even get you noticed, but it isn’t as simple as turning up and whipping your instrument out.

There are some plus points though, and London isn’t totally against busking. The 2003 Underground Busking scheme now means that buskers get an organised slot in underground stations in which they can play. This was once an illegal activity but has now been embraced and is even encouraged, rightly so if you ask me!

Though central London is very strict on its laws and regulations, you may well have more success in outlying boroughs, still on the tube routes and often hives of activity, but a bit more relaxed. They’re still good places to get noticed and boast higher footfalls than many other towns and cities throughout the UK.

If you can manage to tick the right boxes, England, and especially it’s capital, is a brilliant place to busk. In London, there is no reason why you couldn’t even manage to make a decent living out of playing your songs on the streets, and you may well get noticed by many of the important individuals roaming the streets. Anything worth doing is difficult, and busking in London is no exception.

You’re probably here because you want to take your busking to the next level, whether you’re struggling as it is or just want to move up in the world of street performance, we’ve collected some busking tips to help you get to where you need to be. As always, the following tips are meant to advise, and shouldn’t be taken as gospel, you still need to make sure that you have the necessary permissions to busk!

1. Find good spots! A simple tip in the world of busking, you need to find one (or hopefully a collection of) good spots to play at, they can be lively areas, affluent areas or musically receptive areas, make sure you keep a note of the profitable and most enjoyable places to play and keep going back.
2. Keep your distance from both other buskers and any areas where you may be considered a nuisance such as shop entrances, shopping malls (which probably wont let you play in them anyway) and anywhere you might be in the way. Nobody likes a nuisance busker.
3. Be opportunistic. If an artist is in the news at the moment or (god forbid) has just passed away, you can get noticed by playing their songs. If you notice someone wearing a Smiths T Shirt nearby, play a Smiths song! Busking is an art, and you have to riff off your crowd to be the best.
4. Come prepared! Bring a case for donations, some CDs, your card or some leaflets or other promo material as well as spare strings and plectrums, a capo and anything else you might need, treat your busking like any other gig, and bring plenty of gear!
5. Keep your stamina up, and play for as long as you can! Unlike a paying gig, if you’re making money at all out of busking, the longer you can keep going the better, so make sure you have loads of busking songs stored up and some food and drink (sugar and caffeine) to keep you going.
6. Practice, Practice, Practice! Nobody wants to hear a rusty busker! Make sure you’re up to scratch and can play every song on your setlist to the best of your abilities. No point in attempting a Jimi Hendrix song when your guitar skills are more like those of E.T (no, I don’t know why I used E.T. as an example).
7. Learn from the best. Talk to other buskers, stop and listen when you see one, you might pick up some new songs to play or an idea to interact with your crowd.
8. Find a USP and use it. USP stands for unique selling point – what is yours? Can you play an unusual instrument? Beatbox? Live loop? Do anything you can to try and interact with your audience and stand out in a crowd.

I’m sure there was a time that busking licenses weren’t necessary, and one was free to play their sweet, sweet music wherever and whenever without getting in any trouble. But this is the 21st century, people, and a busking permit or license is needed for wherever you plan to take your tunes.

Unfortunately, I can’t give exact figures, numbers and information on obtainability, as it varies hugely from town to town and country to country. I can tell you more or less how you can get the relevant information on busking licenses.

The first step you need to take is to contact the relevant authorities, so your town or county council or local police. They should be able to advise you as to what you need to perform in public. Some places, would you believe, will still allow you to play without any permission, which is great, but they can of course move you on or ask you to leave altogether should your playing be scaring local children, for example. If your local council tell you that you dont need a license, then lucky you, get out there and play! But the chances are you wont be one of the lucky ones, and even if you are, you’ll want to play in a few different locations and some of them will ask for a busking license.

So what can you expect to have to do to get a license? Most of the time, you’ll just have to pay a small administrative fee (it will be small, the council don’t care about making a profit out of you), and provide a passport photo of yourself to prove your identity whenever you might get pulled up. As with most licenses, it will probably expire too and you’ll have to renew it. In some cases, you might have to do an x-factor style interview! This is just to prove you are good at what you do and that you dont sound like a bag of cats being swung around a room, so (hopefully) this shouldn’t be a problem. In some cases, your license might even be free, which is a real bonus.

A word of warning. If you play somewhere without a license to busk, you might be hit with a hefty fine. Another word of warning, be careful that where you’re playing is an area your license allows you to play in! Councils will probably be able to advise you as to where it is okay to busk, but for an example, you don’t want to play in a shopping centre as it will probably be privately owned and you will get in trouble.

I hope this guide has been helpful even if I cant go into specifics. Remember to be safe, call the council and authorities in every area you plan to play in and follow their exact requirements, or you will definitely get in trouble. Happy busking, folks.

Seems like a basic question, huh? How to busk? Well it isn’t as simple as you might originally think. You need to have the correct equipment, you need to have the right permissions, and you need to make sure you’re not making an idiot of yourself by playing the right songs, and keeping them in tune, plus you might want to make money busking, so you need to make sure you are prepared for that.

I’m going to write out how to busk as a bullet pointed list, I love my bullet points as you’ll know if you read my other blog posts. It just makes it easier to digest. Here goes then:

• First things first, planning. Where are you going to busk and when? Do you want a big audience? You might need to think about when you choose to go busking in order to get it right. You also need a plan when it comes to songs. You cant just turn up and strum, you need something of a setlist like you would have for a gig, and a bunch of backup songs for if you get stuck.
• Equipment. You need the gear, of course. You might just choose to go with a good old fashioned acoustic guitar, and that’s cool, but you might want to go further and buy a busking amp. Don’t forget spare strings, plenty of plectrums, a capo, and any other spares you might need.
• Permission. This is key. No, really. Don’t just go out and play for money, or even at all, without finding out the relevant permissions you need. You may need a permit, license or police permission to busk on the streets near you, and it may vary from town to town and county to county. We provide as much info as we can here on Busking HQ, but we can’t possibly provide information for every place in the world, so you need to contact your local authorities (council) to find out the busking laws where you are and where you plan to play.
• Practice. It’s a gig, at the end of the day! You might not think of it as one, but trust me, it is, and you need to be ready like you would for a gig, the only difference here is that you might play for 4 or 5 hours! Dont forget to make sure you know every song you are going to play inside out.
• Check the weather. Please do this, it’s so easily forgotten, but its especially important if you’re traveling to busk. Check the forecast and see how the weather is supposed to be. Hopefully I dont need to explain the reasons in too much detail, but just imagine yourself watching a gig outdoors in a thunderstorm, except you’re not at a gig, and you haven’t paid to get in, and there’s a nice warm coffee shop over there…
• Don’t forget, it’s earnings. I’m no tax advisor but if you are going to make a lot of money out of it, you’re probably going to have to pay some sort of taxes. Don’t overlook this.
• Go for it. It can be hard to take the plunge and just go out and busk, but once you’re legally covered and have the right permissions, go out and baptise yourself in the world of Busking!

Thanks guys, hope these tips are helpful for your busking, dont forget, there’s loads more information here at busking HQ to help you make the most of your busking.