I've been making my living from busking and bookings for the past 15 years. I play Highland pipes and do ok, the secret is not to return to a place too often. For most places once a month is about right and that means having lots of locations if you want to work regularly. Lots of locations mean travel, and I cover the Manchester, Liverpool and West Yorkshire area by public transport. About 1/3 of my bookings come from contacts made while playing on the streets and I love it. I get very little mither from the police and wearing a plaid seems to keep the idiots at a safe distance. I once calculated that about 50,000 individual contributions were given to me in a year. That's a sizeable audience and I hope most of them gave because they enjoyed the music. All the best PP