Here’s a business idea, inspired by an email from Stephen Brown today.
Put the street musician / busking process online. (“Busker” = “a person who entertains people for money in public places, while asking for money.”)
A website where videos of street musicians are collected all in one place, each with a PayPal link so anyone watching can give some money directly to that musician.
See a great musician playing on the street in Cuba, Argentina, Egypt, India, or anywhere else? Make the best recording you can with a video camera.
When they take a break, find out if they have a website and a PayPal address. If so, write it down. If not, set them up with one. (If they don’t have email, set them up an email account first, then a PayPal account pointing to that email account, etc. Write down the info for them. Even if they can’t access it yet, they will some day.)
Then, with their permission, upload the video to YouTube with their name, exact location, and email in the metadata.
Then go to this website and make a page for them. It only needs to ask a few things:
- Performer’s name
- Email address (linked to PayPal)
- Exact location and date of performance
- URLs where videos and photos can be found
- Optional: text box for any other info you want to add
The site will automatically display the videos, and make a PayPal donate button that goes to the musician’s account.
Anything to add or change to this idea? Brainstorm in the comments, here. Click any commenter’s name to go to their website to contact them directly, if you want to get involved and make this happen.
