Mutual Art Complimentary Subscription<\/p>\n We are delighted to offer you complimentary membership to MutualArt,a new personalized, subscription-based art information service that we have found very useful. Recently featured in The Art Newspaper, Flash Art, Forbes, Crain’s, and other publications, MutualArt has over 60,000 members, with more joining everyday.To learn more about MutualArt and to accept our gift of a freemembership, please go to: MutualArt.com<\/span>, click on “Access Code” and enter: xxxxxx<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Free” you say? \ud83d\ude42 I’m in! I’ve been logging into MutualArt daily for almost a month now. Like many of the best things in life, eg. the poetry of e.e. cummings, Italian opera, and my kids, I love it, but I don’t completely understand it. What is MutualArt anyway? According to their About Us<\/a> page:<\/p>\n MutualArt.com has a completely new approach to art on the web. Members can track categories of art – even individual artists – and receive new information on these from thousands of sources. They also receive advance notification of art events in the categories they choose – from exhibitions and lectures to opening parties and galas, to auctions offering works by their preferred artists.<\/p>\n MutualArt.com includes the world’s largest online archive of over 150,000 art related articles from over 250 quality magazines, newspapers and journals, as well as providing a conduit for galleries, museums, auction houses, art fairs and publishers to reach their target audiences over a single, global platform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Let me get my confusion and caveats out of the way before I get to why I’ve been logging in daily. Basically, I understand what they do, but I don’t understand how or why they do it, ie. what is their business model and who is their audience? I got a free subscription, but how free is it? I can’t seem to keep from looking a gift horse in the mouth, so I asked them:<\/p>\n Q: How long is the free trial?<\/p>\n A: A trial membership to the Beta version of MutualArt.com is free of charge. A trial membership will currently last several months. After the trial membership expires, you will have the option to continue your membership for an annual fee of $300. Unless you elect to continue your trial membership you will never be charged for using any function on the site.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I had assumed that their model was to rely on advertising revenue, with perhaps a nominal fee for a premium service. Nope. $300\/year. They claim to target art enthusiasts, collectors and professionals, but what’s really peculiar is that their terms of service<\/a> state, “The MutualArt Services are for the personal use of Members and Authorized Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors.” This makes no sense, unless I’d see\u00a0different terms of service after I forked out the $300.\u00a0Are they making this up as they go along? To be fair, the site just went online this year, and they do have\u00a0an itty-bitty “BETA” superscripted above their logo.<\/p>\n So, what keeps me logging daily? When I first registered I had the opportunity state my preferences for Artists, Venues, Publications, Media, Events, News, Art Categories, and “Other” (my preferred location). I’m looking for representation in San Francisco for my photography, so I specified News, Press Releases, and Features on Photography Exhibitions in SF. I also entered the names of a few of my favorite photographers–Weston, Arbus, and Lux–to keep track of their exhibits regardless of geography.<\/p>\n Now when I log in I’m presented with event recommendations and news which are based on my preferences. It also provides “featured” news and events and a “Venue Discovery” pane which\u00a0are\u00a0not necessarily geared specifically to me, but I have found to be interesting nonetheless, and keep me from getting too myopic. The layout is a bit wide to reproduce here in its entirety, but below is the page that greeted me today, minus the Venue Discovery pane at the bottom and the right-hand headlines and top news\/events:<\/p>\n Is that beautiful, or what? The red checkmarks indicate that the item specifically matches my preferences. (Note that this time even the featured news and events happened to match my preferences.) I’m hooked, and that worries me, because I don’t know when my free subscription that lasts “for several months” will be pulled, leaving me writhing in DTs and jonesing for a fix of art news.<\/p>\n Want a taste? As a member I\u00a0can invite five people to try out the service. I was going to proactively send the invitation to a few artist friends,\u00a0but I really don’t know what the invitation entails. So I asked them:<\/p>\n Q: What happens when I “invite a friend”? Does this give them a special privilege, or just the regular free trial?<\/p>\n A: If you decide to use the invite a friend feature, which we are excited for you to do, it will allow them to use the site free of charge for several months.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hmmm…. that really didn’t answer my question, did it? So I’ll tell you what: I’ll send the invitation to the first five people who post a reply and ask for one (and send me their e-mail address). Otherwise you can check out the site\u00a0yourself at http:\/\/www.MutualArt.com<\/a>.\u00a0Just don’t hold it against me if they suck you in then leave you craving more. OK? See you in rehab.<\/p>\n
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