To Busk or Not to Busk

When I was a second year at UVA, I was part of a trombone quartet called "The Rolling Bones." Like many casual musical groups composed of college students, we were looking to share our craft and make a quick buck at the same time. As a result, we grabbed our trombones and took to the downtown mall to busk our setlist of movie music and rock covers. 

After a fun afternoon of sharing our music with Charlottesville residents and making some tip money, we wondered (maybe not in these exact words) whether our profit-maximizing output (q*) was below the allocatively efficient output (qAE) where the social marginal benefit of our performance intersected the marginal cost of preparing and performing the music. 

In economic terms, our musical performance was a public good, because it fulfills the two criteria that distinguish public goods from private goods. First, our performance is non-rivalrous in consumption. Any downtown mall-goer that listens to our music does not impact the consumption of anybody else within earshot. Second, our product is non-excludable. We have no way to stop non-paying consumers from hearing our music: we have neither the property rights nor the resources to restrict entrance into our portion of the downtown mall. As a result, many people acted as free riders, not contributing any money yet still receiving our product. 

Although our trombone quartet performance is a public good, there are certain factors in the private market that bring our profit-maximizing output closer to the allocatively efficient output, according to Gruber’s theory of public goods. While some mall-goers seemed to enjoy our zany takes on Green Day and Disney soundtracks, others rolled their eyes at four dorky college students playing large brass instruments during their lunch hour. Although the benefits of our performance are shared by all in earshot, the utility gained by our performance varies among individuals. People that particularly enjoy trombone quartets recognized this, and were therefore likely to leave a larger than average tip, pushing our revenue closer to that at the allocatively efficient output. 

When you include the utility gained by enjoying the downtown mall on a beautiful afternoon, as well as some post-busking gelato, it was a successful busking outing for “The Rolling Bones.”