Cash still reigns among older and low-income Americans, Yale economist David Argente said. Americans ages 55 and older use cash at almost double the rate of 18- to 24-year-olds, according to Federal Reserve data<\/a>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no large-scale data on how people in the United States pay street performers, though the Federal Reserve indicates they are most likely to use cash for payments under $25. Paruz and other performers say busking still mostly draws hard money. Paruz said 70% of her tips still come from cash. New York blues keyboardist Gabriel Aldort, who plays in the city\u2019s subways and ferry terminals, said only 5% of his tips are digital.<\/p>\n Aldort puts up \u201chuge\u201d QR codes for apps like CashApp and Venmo, but says his subway audience doesn\u2019t get much use out of them.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the vast majority of New Yorkers, even counting the transients, the tourists, have cash,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But performers have noticed that an increasing amount of their tips come from payment apps. Chadd \u201cWacky Chad\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t accept digital payments, then you\u2019re not going to survive,\u201d Deitz said.<\/p>\n Digital payment apps aim to be more \u201ctrusted, familiar, and easy-to-use\u201d 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.<\/p>\n But while performers say digital tipping is convenient, it has also affected how much audiences tip \u2014 and not necessarily for the better, said Danny Tangelo, a traveling magician who performs across Western states. He\u2019s found cash tips are often higher than digital tips.<\/p>\n Digital payments also lack visibility: Deitz thinks people are encouraged to drop in cash or change when they see others do it.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think that there is a little bit of psychology of people walking forward and saying, \u2018Thank you,\u2019 because they might see the QR code from far away, they might have tipped midshow and then walk away,\u201d Deitz said. \u201cBut then people that didn\u2019t pay see those people walk away, and they go, \u2018Well, I guess it\u2019s acceptable to walk away.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n For Paruz, digital payments make busking less personal: Audiences keep their distance rather than coming up to her and dropping in a tip. Cash \u201cfostered communication,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople would stop and talk to us.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n An alternative is busk.co<\/a>, 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\u2019re worth.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s as easy to give a million dollars as $1 on a cashless payments platform,\u201d Broad said. \u201cYou might think that it\u2019s worth $89, $10, $15, whatever, which is not the same when you\u2019re getting cash out of your wallet and you\u2019re fumbling around for change.\u201d<\/p>\n But Broad says fewer performers have taken up busk.co<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Broadly, Americans are tired of tipping. A survey this spring found more than 40% of Americans<\/a> think \u201ctipping culture is out of control.\u201d That has meant many tipped workers in other industries have seen their tips dip<\/a>.<\/p>\n Besides, with the rising costs of housing<\/a> and food<\/a>, if audiences want to save money, \u201cthey\u2019re going to do it watching a street performer,\u201d Deitz said.<\/p>\n That means performers like him don\u2019t care how you pay them \u2014 as long as you pay. A $2 tip, Deitz said, isn\u2019t going to \u201csustain a white picket fence and two kids.\u201d<\/p>\n For magician Tangelo, though, cash has one additional benefit.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a trick where money appears inside fruit,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t do that with Cash App or Venmo.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Natalia Paruz, who serenades straphangers with her musical saw, isn\u2019t getting the tips she used to. That was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[165,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-69987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Natalia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/250805-subway-venmo-inline-lr-d0d3c5.jpg\")
Natalia Paruz in the Herald Square subway station on July 31.Evie Steele for NBC News <\/p>\n