Why Donate?
It means a lot to us that the people who come to our site have a good time here. So far, we have managed to run everything for free, without advertisements everywhere or a membership fee. We like it that way. And it has been made possible, in part, by the donations of you, our audience.
Nobody is paying us to create this work — no production company, no big sponsors, no generous foundations. It has been an amazing experience, and we are grateful for the opportunity to meet and film such wonderful people. But it has also been very hard and expensive to put together.
If you cannot afford to donate anything, then for you this website is free. But if you have enjoyed what we’re producing, and can spare some money, everything you give will go towards ensuring we can make this project as good as it can be.
Where does the money go?
Equipment — £17,188 ($28,016)
Cameras, bags, batteries, microphones, lenses, filters, memory cards, tripods, a computer, and many, many hard drives are required to get the best that the busking world has to offer, and to bring it to you. We have had to make a lot of compromises to keep the budget as low as it is, while making sure that the footage we’re taking is high quality.
Destination Costs — £16,167 ($26,352)
Visas, vaccinations, food, accommodation, subway tickets, extra batteries (always extra batteries), phone cards, and all the other site-specific costs are included here. It looks like a lot, but averaged out over 10 months, we’re only spending 0.75p per person per hour to keep living, eating and sleeping. To keep the price down to that level, we’re sleeping (almost) exclusively on people’s couches and floors. Yup, for 10 months.
Transport — £23,764 ($38,735)
This is our largest section of spending, although we have done a lot to keep the prices down, replacing the comfort and speed of flying with more green forms of transport: boats, busses and trains. We’ve only flown when the alternative has cost a massive amount in either pounds or hours.
Website — £2,920 ($4,759)
Every month we spend £42 to keep the site running. And to make it look as good as it does, we’ve had to hire an outside web designer. Eventually we’d like the site to expand to include resources to help buskers all over the world, and to have a much more interactive map where users can upload their own youtube videos of street performers.
TOTAL — £60,039 ($97,863)
Sheesh! That’s a lot of money. Thankfully we’re about 2/3 of the way there!
What do I get in return?
You can view this website for free for as long as you like. However, here are some reasons why you might like to donate:
- You get the warm feeling of knowing you’ve helped an historic project reach its goals
- We will put your name in the credits of our film and book, as well as on our thank you page
- You’ll convince our friends and families that we haven’t been wasting our time for almost two years
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