The Albums

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Making it easier to share your albums

The Albums is and will always be a private place for the people that mean the most to you. We are going to keep making it easier to share your moments, big and small, with your closest friends and family.

But sometimes you may want to share an event with a larger audience. Now instead of having to upload pictures in two places you can create an album and then share it anywhere you like…Facebook, Twitter, your blog, you name it. You are creating a lasting place for your family's memories while announcing a big event to your larger network all in one place.

How does it work? Your albums are always private by default and nothing will change for guests on your list. If you want to make a public album, there are two ways to share it outside of The Albums.

1. When Making a New Album After you publish a new album, you'll have the chance to unlock an album and make it public.

2. With Albums You Have Already Made Under Edit an Album, select the album you want to make public and then have the chance to unlock it and share it anywhere you like.

Try it out and share an album you've already made today.

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Not For Sale

Nothing is free in this world - not even on the Internet. So why is it free to use so many other sites?

(They are selling you, not the site).

Your data and pictures. Your name and face.  These are the things that keep investors and advertisers paying the bills so the site can be "free."

If you are the product for sale, then you're not the customer and every business exists to serve its customers.

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Love it! ( I'm actually dreading writing a blog post as I write this).

-Chelsea

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WARNING: You can't put all of your pictures here

There's an arms race on the Internet with each company trying to one up the other for all of your pictures. It's great that you can sync all of your pictures from any device to the cloud. But wait... do you really want to keep all of those pictures?  That terabyte of pictures will take you over 320 hours to look through*. 

At The Albums you can make as many albums as you like, but each album can only hold 25 of your favorite pictures or less.

Why? Because we see The Albums as being something like a museum for your family, and you are the curator.

The constraint of 25 pictures makes you decide which pictures you really love and creates a unique and timeless experience. You are the curator and only you can decide what pictures best illustrate the different chapters of your family's story. Technology can't do that.

*If you looked at each picture for 2 seconds, the pictures were 6 mb each, and depending on your resolution.

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The Albums makes the thousands of miles between us and our family seem insignificant-we feel connected despite the distance.

Katie

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Where are your vacation pictures?

And how often do you look through them?

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It has been many, many years since we had a family reunion, so you can imagine how much this means to me. It's a taste of what an evening with family can be - even if it's virtual and we can't actually BE in one place.

-Riham

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There are thousands and thousands of photos on my computer and it is overwhelming to go through them. It is a chore. Going to The Albums for a quick moment of nostalgia is simple and quick. It's the place where the best photos I've chosen to frame our memories for an event or season will stay and last. It's the place I'll direct my kids to remember.

-Jason

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Our indiegogo video from the summer

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The Story of an Album

This album begins with the birth of our daughter. We've let our Facebook friends know the news and have a few pictures up on Instagram. For most of them, that's enough. But not for everyone.

Our family and our closest friends want to see more pictures and we want to remember these first days together with our daughter forever.

Looks like it's time to make a new album.

I started making our album from the hospital on my iPhone and then when we got home I added some more pictures from our Sony camera. Because The Albums isn't an iPhone app, I can easily combine the best of my Instagram, iPhone and Sony DSLR pics all in one album.

I make sure to tag her in this album, select the event type (New Baby) and the date:

This way, as she grows up, we will be able to easily reminisce together as we look through all of the albums she is in, or more specific memories like each of her birthday parties or when her siblings were born.

Lastly, I upload my favorite 25 pictures for this album.

Once I've finished this new album our family and closest friends are automatically notified and they can enjoy seeing more and more pictures of her first month. I'm creating a lasting place for my family from day one, and I don't have to worry about her privacy because all of my albums are private by default. 

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Thanks for your support!

Thank you so much for supporting our campaign! We didn't make our goal of $20,000 but we are still able to go ahead and release version 1.0 soon to you and your friends. We're so glad to have you with us at The Albums as we begin this community. It looks like we're a little behind our ideal schedule and it will be about 3-4 weeks before you can begin making your albums. We'll send out updates in the coming weeks to let you know any news and progress and then we will contact you personally to get your account set up. Thanks again! Andrew & Sarah @kopkey [email protected]

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"This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine."

Don Draper

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Why We Are Web Minimalists

We believe that to create an online place for families that will stand the test of time it must focus on the essential and leave out the rest.

That’s why at The Albums you won’t find lot of things that most websites have these days. We’ve all grown accustomed to the noise on the Internet, but we believe The Albums should be a quiet, clutter-free place for you family’s amazing memories. A place not just for today, but a place to come back to and reminisce years from now.

We’d like to thank Leo Babauta who has made simplicity practical for us. Please pause and read his post on a minimalist website - that’s what we are going for here at The Albums.

What You Won’t See At The Albums

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Comments 

Social Widgets 

Popups 

Friend Requests

Because it’s a personal and private place

for the best pictures of the people who mean the most to you 

with written stories long and short 

and new features that make curating these moments easier and more fun

Why?

Because we’re here to share the little moments and the big milestones with the people who really care, and everything else is noise.

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It's for Families

As husband and wife co-founders we are creating an online place for our family and for yours. Because we know exactly who The Albums is for, it will be a lot different than websites made for the masses. Know that as The Albums develops we will only make things easier and better for you and your family. How will we know when we have succeeded? We'll be listening to you.

It's like Getting Coffee with a Good Friend

You know the details of each other's stories, you've walked through struggles & celebrated victories, and you savor the time you get together. We believe that some things are best shared with close friends and that's why we are making it easy to share your story with your favorite people no matter where they live.

A Boutique Experience

It's like a Museum

We think most websites are too cluttered, what about you?  A curator doesn't try to cram as much art as possible on one wall; it's his job to decide what makes the cut. We believe your story should be proudly on display. Your family's moments make up a unique work of art that can never be duplicated and that shouldn't be crowded out by ads, notifications and status updates.

Shortcuts!

That vacation you took 5 years ago won't be on page 24 - instead, it will come right to you. As the years go by and your family grows, The Albums adapts and organizes your events to make sure the first memories you shared together are as quick and easy to find as your most recent ones.