Brian Karscig helps launch Instagram of music

“My business partner Nick Venti and I set out to make a music social app called BLKBOX that allows friends to share music and images with the moments of their lives,” says Brian Karscig (Louis XIV, Nervous Wreckords). “We imagined the Instagram of music, but mostly set out to make a fun way to keep in touch with friends, with what they’re doing, and discovering new music.”

Launched in March, BLKBOX has over 600 users accessing the app via iPhone’s Apple store, with an Android incarnation in the works. “Discovering music has been a tough thing for me personally since the closing of record stores and the takeover of all the same music on the radio. Hopefully, sharing bites of music with others can help me discover new music like [when] I used to do it, through friends in school.”

Karscig and Venti began working together in 2009 when Karscig produced an album for Venti’s band Republic of Letters.

“My first BLKBOX post was a video of a painting I got of Leon Russell right after he died,” says Karscig. “I put Leon’s ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Youngblood’ song to the video.”

For now, most BLKBOX users are based in San Diego, though, Karscig notes, “There’s no requirement to sharing music. Really, you just take a video moment of your life or a GIF and pair it with a song of your choice. [The app] pulls music in from streaming services like Spotify, so any song available in the digital streaming world is available in our song search. I had a great video of my friend drunkenly eating cupcakes at a party. Weird Al’s ‘Eat It’ just happen to go really well with that.”