Mfarhanonline Social Media News: The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark . If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here . Name: Artfinder Quick Pitch: Artfinder helps users discover and share art. Genius Idea: Offering art prints beyond the “greatest hits.” After a stroll through the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, art lovers (or aspiring art lovers) might pass any number of works that they’d like to become more acquainted with. But if MOMA’s gift shop displays are any indication, most of them walk out the door with a print of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night , a painting that qualifies as what Artfinder co-founder Chris Thorpe refers to as a “greatest hit.” Discovering and acquiring printed copies of art outside this category can be a bit challenging. Even if an art enthusiast were to remember the name of one of Van Gough’s less famous paintings after leaving MOMA, he’d have a hard time finding a source that sells official prints. Artfinder has launched a three-prong attack on this problem that involves a website, an artwork identifying smartphone app and countless iPad apps. Its website, which launched in March, is a searchable database of about 500,000 works of art. It allows users to search art from about 6,000 galleries by factors such as their home gallery. The UK-based startup has partnerships with galleries and other sources that provide the metadata needed to power its search engine. This allows Artfinder’s algorithms to pull off feats like recommending a favorite artist’s contemporaries in the startup’s “magic tour” art discovery feature. Users can also pull together their favorite works into a personal virtual collection and share them to the u! sual soc ial networks. It’s much like what Last.fm does for music by keeping a record of all the songs a user has played. Its similarities to Last.fm aren’t surprising — Artfinder co-founder Spencer Hymann was once Last.fm’s COO. Artfinder users can buy a print of most artwork that they find on the website, no matter how unlikely they are to find those prints in a poster store. Along with the metadata, the galleries have also given permission to print posters on demand in exchange for a portion of the profits — an agreement that all art printers are supposed to operate under, but many ignore. An impending mobile app will further connect Artfinder’s virtual library and the galleries where the art is actually hanging. When a user comes across a piece of unfamiliar art in a gallery (or anywhere else), he can snap a photo of it with the app, which will recognize the work and direct the user to its Artfinder page. This will provide Artfinder with a method for essentially selling art prints inside of galleries and give its members a way to easily identify and keep track of the art they spot. It’s also a technology that the startup plans to sell to other businesses that need to identify and artwork in order to credit it properly. Artfinder’s iPad app — or apps, rather — take an entirely different approach. Instead of transferring its catalog of artwork from the web to the iPad, the startup decided to create a platform on which artists and galleries could easily build apps that show off their own images. If the gallery or artist sells an app on the iTunes store, Artfinder takes a cut of each sale. If it uses the app as a free marketing tool, Artfinder charges a nominal fee for using its platform. Thorpe says the mission of the business, which has accepted an undisclosed amount of funding from Wellington Partners and Greylock Partners, is to “make it easier to find great art.” Or, at the least, give the average-budget art shopper options beyond what h! appens t o be in stock at IKEA. Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark , a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today . More About: art , Artfinder , startups For more Startups coverage: Follow Mfarhanonline Startups on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Startups channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad Social Media reviews series maintain by Mayya
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