"Pay to Play" - Worse than Working for "Exposure"

It's an interesting time to be a street performer in Boston.

Not too long ago, I was going to write about the hoops that you would need to jump through to get a spot busking at Faneuil Hall. You would need:

1. two references
2. video performances
3. a live audition

Now, it seems, the Faneuil Hall Marketplace management is requiring street performers to pay as much as $2,500 annually just to perform. Faneuil Hall isn't private land either - it is, according to this Boston Globe article, public land even though it is leased out by the city.

Not that it should matter. As someone who has looked into freelancing, I've learned that working for "exposure" isn't any different from working for free. Street performers can get around that because they can get paid directly by the people they are entertaining. Now, Faneuil Hall management is asking street performers to both entertain their visitors AND pay a fee to do so.

Check out the Boston Globe article here.