Here's our step-by-step-story:
I believe that the arts are powerful and have something valuable for everyone.
Everyone watches movies, everyone listens to music, but most people don’t care for visual art. It’s more niche.
So I dragged some of those people to an art museum with me a few times. I realized why they don’t like art. They just don’t get it. Everyone tells you Picasso is a genius, but to 99% of people, they see his work on the wall and they just get confused. And then they move on.
But when I plant a seed in their heads, give them a little context about the art or artist, or my own interpretation, their eyes light up.
I’m convinced that for 99% of people to enjoy art, you need to give them the context. The story behind the piece.
A lot of people will say that “art speaks for itself,” and it does. But it speaks in a foreign language. And most people don’t know that language until they spend years with art. We need to give them the context, or else it’s just paint to them.
So then I look at film, and most people don’t go to film festivals, but they watch Netflix. For music, most people don’t go to underground clubs but they listen to Spotify. Most people don’t go to art galleries, but… there’s no equivalent.
You might say Instagram, but that’s not designed for art. It’s designed to spend 5 seconds per post, leave a one-word compliment, and scroll forever. The algorithm promotes what’s popular and eye-catching, not what’s meaningful. And it’s missing that all-important context. It’s not good for art.
We need something better, so I’m building that Spotify for art. It’s really the same concept as Spotify, but instead of playlists, we have galleries. Instead of songs, we have artwork and audio of the artist telling the story of the piece.
It’s going to be the best art experience on the internet. It won’t replace art museums and galleries, but rather complement them for the 99%, like Spotify and Netflix.
Besides just making art more enjoyable and meaningful for the average person, it’ll give artists the opportunity to build a following without trying to game an algorithm.
And I think art galleries have an opportunity here too. They can curate galleries with their artists, basically building an online version of their exhibitions. Once the platform has grown, it’ll drive traffic to the in-person gallery. And it serves as a much deeper online presence than a simple website, an easy way to sell art online, and a tight online community for the artists, curators, and viewers.