After subscribing to Netflix for watching movies and to Spotify for listening to music, are people ready to subscribe for art in their living room? ArtMgt is an e-commerce startup that is reinventing the way we rent and buy original works of art from critically acclaimed artists.
ArtMgt offers the opportunity to enjoy exceptional artworks without the commitment of spending thousands of dollars. A subscription costs $50 per month and includes insurance and shipping costs. This makes art available to many people with lower incomes. On the other hand are most artists experiencing unpredictability in their monthly income, and ArtMgt seeks to provide a more steady source of income to them. What distinguishes ArtMgt compared to other art rental companies is the website where you can find a specially developed, user friendly art search engine, where you can enter criteria like price category, colors used, or media type and more. As a user, you can organize and save the works online that you are selecting for your home or business. If you want to share your new artwork on social media, you can instantly download it in PDF version. (ArtMgt)
Today’s economy is revealed in what society is consuming: valuing “access over ownership.” People increasingly think it’s more important to enjoy an experience rather than collect and own the products (Haddad, 2015). Millennials don’t seem to have the same collecting gene as previous generations. This doesn’t sound good for the art market, which relies on a cult of possessing (Gerlis, 2018). The art industry has to look for alternative ways to do business. ArtMgt is a great example of adaptation to these changes.
However, they also need to think ahead. The next step might be a version of the sharing economy, where people rent out their art on a platform like Airbnb. The question will be whether that is good for the art industry or not. While ArtMgt’s end goal is to eventually sell the art, a sharing platform for art might make art sales decrease even further and hurt the artist’s wallet. For consumers however, it will be an easy and affordable way to enrich their lives with art. How long will it take for us to start sharing our luxury products like this?
Sources:
ArtMgt: https://www.artmgt.com/
Haddad: http://www.create-hub.com/comment/art-and-the-sharing-economy/
Gerlis: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/can-the-art-market-thrive-in-a-sharing-economy
