Only 4 days in and over $500k. Very impressive. But hey, this is Louis CK. I wouldn't be surprised if he hits $3 million within 6 months.
Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
11–20 of 291 posts
Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
#12When Trent Reznor released Niggy Tardust, 28,322 paid $5 for it, which was 20% of the total who downloaded the album freely. Were there any other albums he released for $5? Granted, this was Saul Williams' album and Trent appeared on it; it wasn't a Halo album.
Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
#13I really hope people don't turn this into a "Louis CK did it, so you should publish without DRM!". I agree with the anti-drm sentiment a lot of people hold, but this experiment only worked because it's "rare". Every time something like this is done people use it as evidence of the viability of the idea (Radiohead's pay what you want comes to mind too) and that really shouldn't be done. The only reason I heard about this experiment was because it's an experiment and I would personally bet that if this wasn't an experiment a huge portion of these sales would never have happened, I hope in the ensuing celebration of the success of this people don't forget this important fact.
"Louis CK published without DRM and made $500,000 sales in 4 days, therefore if you publish without DRM you too will break your own sales records"
Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
#14Chrome warns of an SSL error when I try to visit his site, and when I click proceed, I see an OpenDNS page about nameservers failing. And yet, isup.me says it's up. Interesting.
It works fine here. Why use OpenDNS? They mess with your DNS results. Instead, try 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4: http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html
Google DNS makes for a suboptimal Netflix CDN load-balancing experience. :(
Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
#15Although I'm really happy for him doing this, and it working out so well; Trent Reznor / Radiohead did this exact thing years ago and made millions from it, so I'm confused as to why this got such large publicity.
It got a lot of publicity because that's what he was trying to do. He was on NPR's Fresh Air today and he did a AMA on reddit the other day.
Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
#16I'm sure that most big production/distribution houses are not panicking because it's still a new way to distribute content and it's a niche product, but I'm wondering what they are thinking of this right now. Do they view this as an emerging trend or just as a fad?
Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
#17I wonder if he would have made more if he had let users choose the price.
Or without even choosing the price, going Bandcamp-style and setting a base price while letting you choose to pay more. He also could have made more by providing a link to send the special as a gift, both giving a fans a way to show support, and perhaps growing his audience at the same time.
Very happy for his success, and I hope other artists are paying attention.
Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
#18Is it me or do I find $32,000 for that website a bit too much?
Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
#19I think by releasing the sales figures he actually runs the risk of decreasing sales. I think there is probably a segment of the population that would feel bad about not paying for the video but now that he announced how much money he made their guilt over stealing from a poor artist will subside. It's a bit hard to keep people sympathetic if you've announced that you just made a nice profit. I'm sure at this point he's satisfied either way but it's a thought I had.
Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days
#20When Trent Reznor released Niggy Tardust, 28,322 paid $5 for it, which was 20% of the total who downloaded the album freely. Were there any other albums he released for $5? Granted, this was Saul Williams' album and Trent appeared on it; it wasn't a Halo album.
GHOSTS I-IV (Halo 26) and The Slip (Halo 27) were both hugely successful.