One more here that doesn't think busking is begging. I've busked variously - with a youth wind band collecting for itself, as part of a group collecting for a hospital charity, as part of a tenor horn and kazoo duo, and I've more than once held the pitch for a frozen busker who needed to warm up (all cash to the busker), and played duets with a busker - and never thought of it as begging. I've even busked by accident when someone saw a recorder in my pocket and asked for a tune. I put down my tankard and obliged. The money thay ended up in the tankard more than paid for the little drop of beer that had to be thrown out...