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Louis CK's Internet Experiment Pays Off
redletterdave writes "Comedian Louis C.K., real name Louis Szekely, took a major risk by openly selling his latest stand-up special, 'Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon Theater,' for only $5 on his website and refusing to put any DRM restrictions on the video, which made it easily susceptible to pirating and torrenting. Four days later, Louis CK's goodwill experiment has already paid off: The 44-year-old comic now reports making a profit of about $200,000, after banking more than $500,000 in revenue from the online-only sale. The special, which has sold 110,000 copies so far, is only available on Louis CK's website."
Louis CK said in an NPR interview earlier this week:
I've noticed this attitude as well. It's really, really annoying.
When you give consumers a product that they want, at a price they find fair, in a form factor (format) that is convenient for them, in a location that is convenient for them, they are happy to pay for it!
Every time an artist does something like this, it pays off greatly. Think Humble Indy Bundle. Yet all the major publishers claim they'd be bankrupted? Pirates gonna pirate. Haters gonna hate. Don't screw over your legitimate users with malware!
Didn't Apple already prove this when they converted their music store to a DRM-free format? It seems like nobody around here gives them any credit for that...
Back in the days of Shareware there was a similar attitude from people who actually paid the software author. Part of that was encouraged by the authors, they would list people that had purchased their program or thank them personally. The big difference today is the people who created the stuff that is being "shared" via torrent are usually so distantly removed from the purchase that they don't realize or care that some geek bought their CD or DVD. So there is no longer a recognition from the creator of the work (Bono emails the guys....."Thanks for buying my CD!"), which means the purchaser (former thief) doesn't get any thanks or acknowledgement from the artist and instead must toot his/her own horn.
That's why I like buying product directly from the artist whenever possible, via their website or even at a live show (yes, many artists sell CD's and other merchandise after their shows). I plan on sending Louis CK $5 even if I only watch his video once, mainly because I think it's a great idea and I want other artists to try the same thing (plus he's funny as hell).
John
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
It doesn't feel the same when the "person" doing it is the world's most valuable multinational corporation, and siphons off thirty percent of every sale as a toll, before passing on the payment to more huge multinational corporations to siphon off more, before giving the artists their pittance. I guess for me the DRM is less important than those other things, though still more important.
He filmed and produced the show with money out of his own pocket, that's $170k. The website setup cost was something like $30k. Then he had to pay tax on the gain. That adds up to about $300k leaving $200k in profit.
This is exactly the point. He gets paid just fine for the work that he just did, but to continue to get paid he needs to do new work. This is how the system should work, as opposed to the RIAA/MPAA model of do a work and then try to lock it up and get paid for it for the rest of eternity. The public domain is being robbed by these kinds of jokers who think that once something is made it should be owned forever, rather than becoming the shared cultural heritage that it really is and belonging to all the people who saw it when it was initially made.
Heh. You remind me of this quote from a movie. I don't remember the exact movie, but the quote went something like this:
- I saved a man's life once!
- Yeah? What did you do?
- I stopped kicking him.
Well, more importantly, it proves you don't need a major publishing company to make a profit.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Back when allofmp3 was still alive and well, I bought hundreds of dollars of music from them. Even a lot of stuff that I already owned on CD since it was much more convenient to download the album than to find a good ripping program and to sit around and load CD's.
After I lost the ability to add funds to my allofmp3 account, I pretty much stopped buying music at all, except the very occasional MP3 album. At $2.00/album I'm willing to buy lots of music, even bands I don't know well. At $10/album, I'm much more selective to the point of almost never purchasing.
Not to mention the fact that I already have a few hundred albums of music I like, so I don't really feel a strong urge to purchase more. The more music I own, the less I'm willing to spend on new music. If I have only 2 albums, I might be willing to spend $20 on a new one just to get variety. But if I have 200 albums I don't add much variety to my collection by buying something new, so I might want to pay only $5 for a new album unless it's some artist I really like.
I found it odd that TFA didn't mention the site, or where one can go to get this fine drm-free video.
https://buy.louisck.net/
I think it's great, personally. He's getting $5 from me. It's a fair price, and he's a funny guy.
"Lame" - Galaxar
LCK says he doesn't get torrents, but I think he does, this is very smart. Many people who watch the torrent version will gladly hop over to his site and pay their $5 and not even bother to d/l again. Movies should be like this, what if you could pay on the way out of the theater after you've seen the movie, wouldn't that make alot more sense?
You know it'll never happen, but it's a nice idea
=D
What! Do I look like a people person?
Louis C.K. is real big on that. He claims, and his shows seem to back up, that he tosses his old jokes each year and moves on to new ones. He doesn't keep doing the same material over and over. Means that if he releases a new special, well there is probably a reason to watch it.
SO? Apple makes some money. 30% isn't really that bad when you look at costs to operate iTunes.
Hey, musicians, self publish. Don't sign the contract.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
But the only method is to use paypal.
I had to change my email to get rid of those cretins.
The level of their malevolence I leave to others to describe.
Too bad, I wanted to reward Louis for his efforts.
I've not made a few other purchases for the same paypal reasons.
No brain, no pain.
Why not do as Louis does? Cut out the useless middleman and link directly to his statement.
$5.00 for an h264 720p non-DRM video, an mp4 standard definition file with no-DRM, and the option to stream it over the internet two times. It was a great deal, and I thought it deserved support. The fact that I got 2 copies of the show, that I can use on whatever device I choose, is great.