Natalia Paruz, who serenades straphangers with her musical saw, isn’t getting the tips she used to.
On a recent Thursday afternoon at the Herald Square station in Midtown Manhattan, the Saw Lady, as Natalia Paruz is known, was showcasing her talents. Yet, her golden tip bucket had garnered only a few dollar bills and coins halfway through her three-hour performance during the evening rush.
“I have so many people coming up to me saying, ‘I adore your music and wish to tip, but I no longer carry cash,'” Paruz shared.
That’s led her to display QR codes for digital payment apps Venmo and PayPal for commuters to send her digital tips.
Street performers are witnessing a shift due to the dwindling cash transactions. As their tip buckets and guitar cases contain fewer bills, magicians and musicians are resorting to digital payment methods to earn while entertaining.
A study by Capital One reveals that nearly half of American adults do not use cash weekly. In the past year, about 70% of Americans made few or no cash purchases. By 2024, cashless payments constituted 87% of U.S. transactions, with predictions that by 2027, this will rise to 94%.
According to Yale economist David Argente, cash remains prevalent among older and lower-income groups. Federal Reserve data shows Americans aged 55 and over use cash almost twice as much as those aged 18 to 24.
While comprehensive data on street performer payments in the U.S. is lacking, Federal Reserve insights indicate that cash is typically used for transactions under $25. Despite this, busking largely attracts cash donations. Paruz mentions that 70% of her earnings are still in cash. Similarly, New York blues pianist Gabriel Aldort notes that only 5% of his subway and ferry terminal tips are digital.
Aldort puts up “huge” QR codes for apps like CashApp and Venmo, but says his subway audience doesn’t get much use out of them.
“I think the vast majority of New Yorkers, even counting the transients, the tourists, have cash,” he said.
But performers have noticed that an increasing amount of their tips come from payment apps. Chadd “Wacky Chad” Deitz, a Boston-based stunt comedian who does backflips off pogo sticks in Northeast cities, has been experimenting with digital payments for 12 years. He now thinks 30% to 40% of his tips come that way.
“If you don’t accept digital payments, then you’re not going to survive,” Deitz said.
Digital payment apps aim to be more “trusted, familiar, and easy-to-use” ways for gig workers like buskers to make money, Venmo general manager Alexis Sowa said in a statement. A Cash App spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
But while performers say digital tipping is convenient, it has also affected how much audiences tip — and not necessarily for the better, said Danny Tangelo, a traveling magician who performs across Western states. He’s found cash tips are often higher than digital tips.
Digital payments also lack visibility: Deitz thinks people are encouraged to drop in cash or change when they see others do it.
“I do think that there is a little bit of psychology of people walking forward and saying, ‘Thank you,’ because they might see the QR code from far away, they might have tipped midshow and then walk away,” Deitz said. “But then people that didn’t pay see those people walk away, and they go, ‘Well, I guess it’s acceptable to walk away.’”
For Paruz, digital payments make busking less personal: Audiences keep their distance rather than coming up to her and dropping in a tip. Cash “fostered communication,” she said. “People would stop and talk to us.”
Apps like Venmo and Cash App also take a small cut of money received for goods and services, which adds up when performers are processing large amounts of digital payments.
An alternative is busk.co, a nonprofit, busker-specific payment site that allows performers to receive tips via Apple Pay, Google Pay and credit card. Berlin-based filmmaker Nick Broad started building the site in 2012 while working on a documentary about street performers. He says digital payments help make sure that buskers get paid what they’re worth.
“It’s as easy to give a million dollars as $1 on a cashless payments platform,” Broad said. “You might think that it’s worth $89, $10, $15, whatever, which is not the same when you’re getting cash out of your wallet and you’re fumbling around for change.”
But Broad says fewer performers have taken up busk.co in the United States compared to countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. He says that could be because apps like Venmo or Cash App are more mainstream here.
Although digital payments have helped buskers make up for a decline in cash tips, performers are still struggling. Paruz says she makes less from cash and digital tips than she did when she began performing in the 1990s, while Deitz has hit all-time lows for payment at multiple performances this year.
Broadly, Americans are tired of tipping. A survey this spring found more than 40% of Americans think “tipping culture is out of control.” That has meant many tipped workers in other industries have seen their tips dip.
Besides, with the rising costs of housing and food, if audiences want to save money, “they’re going to do it watching a street performer,” Deitz said.
That means performers like him don’t care how you pay them — as long as you pay. A $2 tip, Deitz said, isn’t going to “sustain a white picket fence and two kids.”
For magician Tangelo, though, cash has one additional benefit.
“I have a trick where money appears inside fruit,” he said. “You can’t do that with Cash App or Venmo.”
