"most places want it either free or for so little money it is a joke"

What - there are places that actually WANT live music?!

As for me - I'm making a living busking at the moment. It's not for everybody - I mean, it's not the way to go for all musicians; I am actually busking for everybody - and there's a certain amount of luck involved - you have to have access to a spot that has lots of pedestrian traffic, relatively little noise, and few or no other buskers. Come to think of it - I really have lucked out, haven't I?