By JAKE PEARSON
NEW YORK (AP) — To many, the real soundtrack of New York City plays out well below the street cacophony of rumbling traffic and honking horns, in the subways, where screeching trains combine with the drumming, strumming and singing of hundreds of performers.
They are known as buskers, and they have one of the toughest gigs in show business, trying to get some attention and hopefully some tips from more than 5 million daily commuters who are famous for their get-out-of-my-face focus and sharp elbows.
“You might have a bad day, but just coming out and hearing nice music, it puts people in a more relaxed mood,” says Roland Richards, 57, a Trinidad and Tobago-born steel drum player who has performed in city subways since 1987.
Performers trying to eke out a living beneath the stages of Carnegie Hall, Broadway and Madison Square Garden are as diverse as the city itself —there are bucket drummers, Andean wind-pipe blowers, one-man-bands, Chinese string lute players and more. They rely on the ebb and flow of strangers’ generosity — but are especially active now, as the lucrative holiday season approaches and tourists flood the city.
Because such performances are protected speech under the First Amendment, there is no permit required to perform underground. But the Metropolitan Transit Authority tries to bring some order to it all by holding annual auditions to allot prime station spots, on a schedule, to about 350 different artists.
View gallery.”In this Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013, photo, Jeffrey Masin, …
In this Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013, photo, Jeffrey Masin, center, stands with his one-man band ensemble …
And the city has some strict ground rules: Putting out a hat for tips is OK, begging is not. No disrupting service. No performing in the subway cars. And no amplifiers on the platforms.
So how much can buskers make? While hard statistics are elusive, some performers who are aggressive about staking out prime spots and selling CDs of their music can make more than just pocket change.
Theo Eastwind, 38, a singer-songwriter and full-time subway performer, has taken donations and sold about 50,000 CDs of his original rock songs at $10 a pop since 1995. In his best year, he said he pulled in about $80,000, and $15,000 in his worst.
Further reading: http://music.yahoo.com/news/nyc-subway-performers-eke-living-051928835.html
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