No longer carrying cash in your wallet? No problem – you can now pay buskers and street performers with tap-and-go
- Australians can now pay buskers through a tap-and-go payment on the streets
- The six-week trial is being rolled out in Melbourne using payments app Alipay
- Singer and guitarist Jessica Paige hopes it will have a positive impact on buskers
Australians will no longer be able to say ‘sorry, I don’t have any cash’ to buskers with a new tap-and-go payment system being rolled out on the streets.
The savvy new payment method for buskers is being trialled in Melbourne.
Passersby will be able to pay a set amount issued by the busker, usually between $2-5.
Singer and guitarist Jessica Paige, 33, from Melbourne, said the progressive switch to a cashless society was negatively impacting the money she made on the streets, ABC reports.
A new pay wave system (pictured) for buskers is being trialled in Melbourne to help combat the cashless society phenomenon
Pundits will have to use their smartphone camera to scan a QR code, which is a 2D barcode (pictured, right) registered by the busker to pay. Alipay is running the six-week trial (pictured right)
‘It’s a good thing because a lot of people don’t carry cash anymore and up to 70 per cent of our income has disappeared because of this,’ she told the Herald Sun.
Ms Paige, who has been busking for 17 years, hopes the six-week paywave trial will help generate more income for her and other buskers.
The tap-and-go system is being run by online payments company Alipay and buskers will have a one per cent fee for each transaction.
Australians will simply have to download the app to pay buskers using QR code technology.
Pundits will have to use their smartphone camera to scan a QR code, which is a 2D barcode, registered by the busker to make the payment.
The Alipay app will include notifications on registered buskers location and playing times.
Australians will simply have to download the app to pay buskers using QR code technology (pictured)
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