MONTREAL — A busker operating outside of Beaudry station has taken to playing YouTube videos of better buskers for money.
“I play all the hits,” said the busker, Seb Trudel-Gendron. “That one of the amazing plastic bucket drummers, that 12-year-old breakdancer kid, that 5-piece jazz troupe — sometimes I play that one where you think it’s a busker and it turns out to be Michael Buble. People like that one.”
Trudel-Gendron uses his smartphone to play the videos.
“My hand does gets tired sometimes holding the phone up for people to see all day,” said Trudel-Gendron. “So, when that happens, I just describe the videos to people.”
Trudel-Gendron calls what he does “content curation.”
“You want to see a talented subway busker? I’ll show you 12. None of them are me, but that’s not my talent. My talent is content curation.” he explained. “I can’t really sing, dance or play a musical instrument, anyway.”
At press time, Trudel-Gendron had secured a job with a startup called BuskerReel whose hope is to develop an app that allows people to watch subway buskers on their mobile phones in the safety and comfort of their own homes.
