30
June
2009
|
04:00 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Jajah Co-Founder Leads Launch Of Talenthouse - A Social Network For Artists

Talenthouse launched today, lead by Roman Scharf, the co-founder of Jajah, a succesful free telephony service.

Talenthouse aims to be the first online community for artists worldwide. It allows them to exhibit their work and also to connect with each other to collaborate on projects.


"With Talenthouse we eliminate the age-old artistic struggle for recognition and instead focus on creative excellence,” said Roman Scharf, CEO of Talenthouse. “We are filling a tremendous void felt by the artistic community."


The site has won support from international artists:


The Vienna Symphony Orchestra; international curator Dan Cameron; fashion icon Naomi Campbell; film director and Oscar nominee Fernando Meirelles; actor Stephen Dorff; and songwriter, recording artist and fashion designer Dallas Austin.

These artists have agreed to host “Creative Invitations.”


A “Creative Invitation” acts as a stimulus for collaboration on an original project. The projects can be commissioned by any artist in the community or proposed by an established artist looking to work in tandem with another. The goal is to inspire multiple collaborations, which the community can evaluate and vote upon, leading to recognition for the artists and projects that rise to the top.


The idea for Talenthouse is from British recording artist Amos Pizzey:


"Coming up first as an artist then as a producer in the music industry, I saw so many talented young people that had no way of being seen and heard. For us the Internet is the ultimate tool for them to create, collaborate and liberate their art for all time."


This is how it works:


Artists can log onto www.talenthouse.com and create a profile that showcases their talent, including a brief description of history and past work experience, a profile picture as well as links to personal Web sites and other social networking pages. Most importantly, Talenthouse provides easy access to samples of an artist’s work, which are uploaded and presented in a unique 3D timeline. The artist’s profile will also highlight ‘supporters' and other artists 'supported' as well as any “Creative Invitations” and sponsored challenges in which the member has participated. Talenthouse acts as a one-stop-shop for artists allowing them to embed their profile and work into popular online properties such as Facebook and Myspace.


Talenthouse says it already has more than 25,000 memebrs and plans to have one million by June 2010.

Foremski's Take:

It's an interesting project but artists already have a multitude of ways to showcase their work: Youtube, web sites, etc. And as for collaboration, it seems that most artists I know have no trouble finding local collaborators. And local is key here.

What artists do need is money to support their work. Providing a commerce platform that can handle a variety of back-office tasks would be a good idea. Also, others could use Talenthouse to commission works of music or art. Or maybe find less expensive artists, which could harm rather than help artist incomes.

The site itself is slick but very busy, there's a lot going. Where do you start? It is trying to appeal to many artist communities: Talenthouse - All Creative - Film, Fashion, Art, Music and Photograph. It will be a challenge to be relevant to all types of artists.