The idea is simple: Artists upload high-resolution images of their work. A fulfillment center prints and ships editions directly to consumers, in a variety of sizes, on materials ranging from wall-mounted canvas and acrylic panels to yoga mats and tank tops. AI-powered statistical analysis tracks your potential buyers; a marketing calendar maps out your social media strategy. The bespectacled sales rep showed me a summary of one artist’s annual earnings: more than $80,000. If I sign up in the next few hours, she said — for $1,699 upfront for the basic Bronze membership level and $50 a month for the web store — they’ll build my site for me. And I’ll, supposedly, start collecting the cash.
Art Storefronts was started in 2013. It now has 14,000 members. Nick FriendThe company’s chief executive and founder is a graduate of USC’s Marshall School of Business. He developed the idea for art storefronts after starting a company that produces fine art papers and canvas.
As it says on the Art Storefronts website, “Selling art? Marketing is everything.,
From the moment I gave my contact information, I continued to endure their hard sell: emails and text messages hanging over one of the few dwindling slots in their latest limited promotion. Other emails promised further outings with satisfied Art Storefront customers.
“I’ve seen so many ads now, these videos, you know: Artist, I can help you make $500,000 and blah, blah, blah. And that’s always the promise,” he said Karen Hutton, An accomplished landscape and travel photographer, she sells a variety of images through the Art Storefronts website, but that’s just one part of her successful career. “I have a vision of what I want my business to be,” she told me. “Her business education doesn’t match that. And that’s OK because it matches other people’s.”
One person says that ideally Testosterone-filled Art Storefront podcast episode Since 2017 (removed from their website in the last several weeks), prospective members are encouraged to pass the “Is my art worthless?” test by selling their art offline, to a stranger.
The friend told me that 20 percent of new members have never sold art before. Art storefronts also seemed ready to take my money — one marketing email said my art had “suddenly” caught the attention of a representative. But I didn’t show it to anyone.