The Spotify of art: Catalan company develops visual art streaming platform

Catalan start-up WindowSight has created a new platform that allows users to stream visual art to their television.

The catalogue already has more than 5,000 pieces to browse from around 200 artists and aspires to be a platform for art similar to what Spotify offers to the music industry.

The application, developed by a Catalan family, is available for Android and Apple devices and has gathered more than 3,500 users in the first months of the testing phase.

“Users can browse content from many artists from different fields, like photography, painting, demonstration,” WindowSight co-founder Pol Rosset explained to Catalan News. 

“Those artists upload their content on the platform and then the users can select which images or which material they want to display at their home.” 

Artists who feature on the platform receive 50% of the membership fee from users who stream their works, providing a valuable source of income. 

“We want to be an alternative [to museums and galleries] the same way that has been done with music,” Rosset says. “Anyone can go to a concert but you can also listen to music at home, like with Spotify.”

The app is born in a time of pandemic where access to galleries and museums has been limited. "The idea comes from about ten years ago,” Rosset explains, "but now we are lucky to give artists another tool at a difficult time."

More than 200 artists have joined the platform, including photographers, painters, illustrators and digital artists. 

American photographer Tim Laman is one of the artists who uses the app to share his work. "There are people who can't afford to buy a painting or can't go to museums, and this is an opportunity for everyone who has a TV to see and enjoy art," he says.

Laman shares his work through his website (www.timlamanfineart.com) and his Instagram account, but acknowledges that the result is not the same, highlighting the great contribution of WindowSight. "Instead of seeing the photos on a small cell phone screen, people can see them on a TV screen and be able to enjoy all the details," he says.