Giving Art Back to the People with Chuck Sperry

INDUSTRY:

Art

LAUNCH TYPE:

Online

CHALLENGE:

Bots and Resellers

Few artists can boast a career as legendary as Chuck Sperry’s.

Best known for his dreamy, ethereal style and iconic American rock posters, Chuck’s work has been exhibited in venues ranging from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to the United States Library of Congress and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He’s often credited with propelling rock posters into the fine art genre (where they belong!), and has built a dedicated and passionate fanbase.

Around 2019, I started to see bots taking over. I knew they were only interested in the resale value of the art, rather than appreciation for the art itself. This beautiful collectors vibe was being replaced by a cutthroat commercial vibe.

The Challenge

For years, Chuck had run his launches manually via his Wordpress site. Fans would frantically hit the refresh button, anxiously awaiting the appearance of the PayPal button at the moment of release. The process was labor intensive for Chuck and his fans, and created a lot of opportunities for bad actors.

In March of 2023, the challenge came to a head with the highly-anticipated launch of his Widespread Panic “Venus” poster. Bots descended upon Chuck's website like a digital storm, generating a staggering 2.3 million automated refreshes in just the first two minutes of the sale. The surge overwhelmed his server, causing it to crash. He promised his fans he’d find a solution, and within just a few months, he delivered on that promise through EQL.

“The same 12-15 people were getting through each time and hauling away half  of the good stuff. Fake names, fake addresses. I knew the good fans were getting taken advantage of by this pack of hungry wolves.”

the sperry collectible card set

The Fix

Chuck's inaugural launch with EQL featured "The Sperry Collectible Card Series 2." EQL’s solution helped to get his art into the hands of genuine admirers by filtering out the bots, but also revolutionized the entire launch experience, making it less manual and more seamless for both Chuck and his fans.

Chuck can now set up his launches in a matter of minutes, and has significantly reduced the time he used to spend responding to fan support questions or inquiries from draws.

elysia | Chuck Sperry

The Outcome

The EQL-assisted launch was met with praise and support from fans, leading to:

500

Fan posters getting into the hands of real fans

4.9/5

Fan satisfaction score

9/10

Fan saying they would recommend future EQL drawings

And Chuck no longer spends his time in the chaos of his tech, or the aftermath of launches. Which means he gets to spend his time where it matters most—creating beautiful art for the people who appreciate it.

Want to learn more about running fair launches with EQL? Get in touch. Interested in viewing more of Chuck’s iconic work? Visit chucksperry.net.

EQL is perfect for limited edition art releases. I can’t think of a better platform for it. I hope the whole community of platform collectors are dealing with their artists using this and botting becomes a thing of the past.