Equipboard is an interesting new startup that, on the face of it, is a crowdsourced site for posting the gear musicians use. But when you dig in you see it's quite a bit more than that combining multiple sources for gear identification but also fashion spotting and ecommerce. In addition, Equipboard is now including a broader range of subjects beyond musicians in its database such as athletes and actors which, in essence, illustrates their path forward.
Equipboard surprised me. I'm not that into gear and hardware so I immediately assumed it was like sites I used to check out during my hip hop media years with fairly geeky approaches to the topic of what gear and software musicians used for particular songs or more generally for production.
Equipboard initially pitches itself as something similar on the homepage:
“We're the world’s largest database of artists and the gear they use. All crowd-sourced and built by you."
You can browse musicians by roles such as Music Producers and Singers in addition to searching for specific musicians. But the database also organizes by individual pieces of gear which includes who's using it.
A Database That Goes Beyond Gear to Include Fashion
While that provides a nicer user interface than some of the earlier efforts I vaguely remember, how they're different becomes clearer when checking out an individual like Kendrick Lamar who seems to have a more complete profile than some.
Gear is mostly identified by such sources as YouTube videos and photos with individual items often mentioned because of their connection to a single song. This is a rather different approach than I've encountered in the past where someone might break down the total package of gear and software used in a particular song or in a musician's live setup.
But that fits an ecommerce play much better which looks like a big part of their business model. For Lamar, as opposed to an artist like Hans Zimmer though he might be stylish too, there's also a fashion element with things that Lamar's worn identified and described with an ecommerce option such as a link to Amazon or eBay.
Identifying fashion items in videos and photos became a big thing in the hip hop media space in the previous decade, as well as in celeb and gossip blogs, helping fuel the rise of a wide range of trend blogs. Equipboard nicely combines gear and fashion in a way that has a lot of mainstream potential.
The page also includes source videos and photo links. The videos in particular give Equipboard a content/media element which enriches the site but that appears to be more of a secondary aspect at this stage.
And Beyond Musicians to Include Artists, Atheletes and Others
It was at this point, because I'm almost literally describing my journey through the site, that I realized Equipboard is already going far beyond musicians. Click on Explore in the top nav bar and you'll see they're also including athletes, actors and “others" in the databse.
The homepage and the official background statement I received (apologies for not sharing much of that) emphasize musicians and music gear though the announcement does note the potential to roam further afield.
So the bigger play is pretty clear with the products that all sorts of well-known and individual people use and wear in a great big user-friendly database and community. And that could work very well.
Check Equipboard's AngelList page for more on those involved including cofounders Michael Pierce and Giulio Chiarenza as well as a healthy list of investors.
Equipboard surprised me. I'm not that into gear and hardware so I immediately assumed it was like sites I used to check out during my hip hop media years with fairly geeky approaches to the topic of what gear and software musicians used for particular songs or more generally for production.
Equipboard initially pitches itself as something similar on the homepage:
“We're the world’s largest database of artists and the gear they use. All crowd-sourced and built by you."
You can browse musicians by roles such as Music Producers and Singers in addition to searching for specific musicians. But the database also organizes by individual pieces of gear which includes who's using it.
A Database That Goes Beyond Gear to Include Fashion
While that provides a nicer user interface than some of the earlier efforts I vaguely remember, how they're different becomes clearer when checking out an individual like Kendrick Lamar who seems to have a more complete profile than some.
Gear is mostly identified by such sources as YouTube videos and photos with individual items often mentioned because of their connection to a single song. This is a rather different approach than I've encountered in the past where someone might break down the total package of gear and software used in a particular song or in a musician's live setup.
But that fits an ecommerce play much better which looks like a big part of their business model. For Lamar, as opposed to an artist like Hans Zimmer though he might be stylish too, there's also a fashion element with things that Lamar's worn identified and described with an ecommerce option such as a link to Amazon or eBay.
Identifying fashion items in videos and photos became a big thing in the hip hop media space in the previous decade, as well as in celeb and gossip blogs, helping fuel the rise of a wide range of trend blogs. Equipboard nicely combines gear and fashion in a way that has a lot of mainstream potential.
The page also includes source videos and photo links. The videos in particular give Equipboard a content/media element which enriches the site but that appears to be more of a secondary aspect at this stage.
And Beyond Musicians to Include Artists, Atheletes and Others
It was at this point, because I'm almost literally describing my journey through the site, that I realized Equipboard is already going far beyond musicians. Click on Explore in the top nav bar and you'll see they're also including athletes, actors and “others" in the databse.
The homepage and the official background statement I received (apologies for not sharing much of that) emphasize musicians and music gear though the announcement does note the potential to roam further afield.
So the bigger play is pretty clear with the products that all sorts of well-known and individual people use and wear in a great big user-friendly database and community. And that could work very well.
Check Equipboard's AngelList page for more on those involved including cofounders Michael Pierce and Giulio Chiarenza as well as a healthy list of investors.
