Aspiring buskers who are new to or have less than two years on the scheme will have to attend annual auditions for the first two years before benefitting from the extended validity period.
In Singapore, buskers can perform in public only if they are issued the LOE, which allows them to book designated locations for their performance.
NAC requires buskers and those wanting to busk to attend a pre-audition briefing in person or online, and perform during one of the four audition cycles in a year. The auditions must be performed live.
Last year, some buskers bemoaned the live audition requirement for their yearly renewals, calling it a “hassle” when they spoke to TODAY.
One had to fork out S$2,000 to fly back from London to Singapore to renew his licence. Others complained about the lack of online auditions and the validity period of the licence.
NAC said in response to the grievances at the time that the audition was necessary to endorse buskers with its licence, so they do not need multiple approvals across various government agencies to perform.
The process was also to ensure that “quality acts” were performed on Singapore streets.
OTHER ENHANCEMENTS TO SUPPORT BUSKERS
Other enhancements introduced in the latest announcement were the refinement of a balloting system to include more locations with high booking rates, and a new time-sharing function on the busking e-service site for buskers to share their slots with other buskers.
1. Balloting system
NAC said that buskers may have better access to around 80 popular busking locations, after more than 10 new designated places were introduced last December.
From April, the balloting system will include a wide range of locations with high utilisation rates based on data from the last 12 months.
The list of popular locations will also be reviewed yearly to ensure the optimisation of spaces, it added.