YouTube recently announced a feature on livestreams called “Super Chat.” This feature allows viewers on livestreams to create a chat message that is highlighted in a particular color, with a particular number of characters allowed, which will then be more easily seen by other viewers of the livestream and by the streamers themselves.

This new feature brings YouTube into alignment with other streaming companies such as Twitch (whose tipping system involves something called “Bits” and YouNow (which uses a tipping system called “bars”) who allow users to give money directly to creators while getting some form of recognition during the stream. These features can also be used by “guerilla marketers” to advertise products during live events by purchasing these tipping features on more popular streams.

For creators, the benefits are quite easy to see. Often, advertising revenue is difficult to understand, changes with the season, and depends largely on factors that are unable to be changed by the creators themselves. Receiving direct micropayments from viewers allow creators to understand immediately how much revenue they are generating, and how much time they need to spend, on average, streaming a video in order to reach a certain financial goal.

This type of microtransaction is not unheard of offline. Musicians and street performers have long used this type of transaction in the form of a hat or a guitar case sitting out on the sidewalk for passers-by to tip if they like a performance. In street performance parlance, this is called busking.

Busking is a very different form of performance payment than many of the established norms. Rather than book a venue or be asked by a performance space to put on a show for a set amount of money, buskers ply their wares in the most crowded areas they are allowed to (or sometimes are not allowed to, if they are particularly gutsy) and perform for the public-at-large, hoping that their talent is strong enough (or the public’s sympathy is enough, for less-talented performers) to be paid directly by those walking by. It’s a risky form of performance, as it depends on factors such as the weather, estimation of crowd size, potential for thievery, and how much pocket money each audience member will have.

In many ways, this new online busking takes much of the risk out of the transaction. However, much like a crowded corner of a bustling city street, livestreamers may find at the end of the day that there are only so many coins in so many pockets to be distributed, and the performer with the loudest voice may be the one with the most money in his hat.