South African innovation, BUSQR, is the world’s first live donations platform
Audiences may have moved online, but the ability to pay for live performances hasn't.
Musicians, comedians, dancers, actors are all really concerned about their ability to generate income in the future now that social distancing, and the national lockdown, has basically outlawed the gathering of more than two people without the use of a digital interface.
Audiences may have moved online, but the ability to pay for live performances hasn't.
To solve this issue, Jon Savage (the former lead singer of the band Cassette and somebody I sat behind at a wedding towards the end of last year) and Jason Stewart (from the agency 'Have you heard' - also a chap that we know well) has created a new online donations platform called BUSQR (that's pronounced 'Busker').
The platform provides each artist registering on the site with a simple, 'snappable' QR code (from a smartphone camera) that can be embedded into any live stream across any platform, from Facebook to YouTube to Instagram (and beyond).
This enables fans to contribute to their favourite artists in real time while they perform live on their social channel from anywhere in the world. It also notifies the artist in real time that a fan has contributed, and fans can even send the artist a personal note. In this manner, a whole new level of interaction between fans and their favourite stars during a time where support is needed has been created.
Artists that have already signed up to the service include some of South Africa's greatest: Zolani Mahola, Francois van Coke, Arno Carstens, PEER, Natasha Meister, Jon Shaban, Nathan Ro and Rob Van Vuuren.
It's a clever idea and if it enables artists to survive and keep on making the music, comedy and other delights that make life all the more pleasurable - then it deserves to go global and thrive.
Check out the site here and the Instagram feed here.