Musician Dave Harrington, who has a set on Our House
With most countries banning large public gatherings to avoid spreading the coronavirus, musicians, artists, stand up comedians and a wide array of entertainers have been forced to indefinitely cancel tours, shows and public events.
And while the financial blow may not be as much of a nightmare for the world’s biggest superstars, some of whom are billionaires, the vast majority of the entertainment industry is composed of artists who don’t own a fleet of Rolls Royces.
This has left artists scrambling to figure out how to make money from home. But how can, for example, a drummer of a punk rock band, used to paying his rent by selling tickets to live shows, make money by practicing his profession in a concertless world?
Graham Fortgang, a Forbes Under 30 listmaker in 2018, might have the answer. On April 1st, Fortgang and fellow New York-native Julian Kahlon launched 24/7 digital television network Our House. The online station crowdsources and streams talent, ranging from musicians and yoga instructors to chefs and art historians, offering $100/hour with no submission fees.
Our House TV Season 1 Lineup
“Our mission is to put paid opportunity in the creative community” Fortgang says.
According to him, launching the platform now couldn’t have been more timely. The virus has cancelled not only entertainment events, but it has also had a severe impact on the hospitality industry. With many artists having part time jobs as bartenders, they are now out of their secondary job as well.
“Our hope is that this opportunity is not just capturing the creative expression of people stuck at home, whether that’s doing a jazz class or teaching us how to glaze a salmon, but also an amazing way to rethink how we create and consume content,” said Fortgang.
In order to be featured on Our House, artists submit their pre-recorded material to the website. The Our House team reviews it to make sure it’s of good quality both content and image/soundwise, and the ones that meet the criteria get assigned a timeslot. In addition to the $100/hour, there is an option for viewers to tip the artist if they like the performance.
Around 48 hours after launching, Fortgang tells FORBES that Our House has received over 250 submissions, and has had viewers tune in from 50 countries, from South Korea to Barbados.
Dave Harrington, a composer and a musician, did an improvised score of a public domain film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari for his "Midnight Movies" segment that he will have on Our House.
“I’m really happy because the platform gives a second life to what was a live concert, and gives more people a chance to see it” Harrington told FORBES.
At the moment, Our House lives off of sponsorships. Fortgang, who ended up on the Forbes Under 30 list as cofounder of Matcha tea company MatchaBar (where Diplo and Drake are investors), said that while his company is a sponsor on the project, they are interested in seeing whether the appetite for this type of content and entertainment keeps growing, possibly to develop it as a business.
“Our tagline is feed the creators” Fortgang says, “though if this can scale, we’ll continue to get new sponsors and try to prove a model.”
