I 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 t…
That's bunk. It boils down to saying, "sure, it worked for Louis CK and Radiohead, and Cory Doctorow and Humble Bundle. It worked for Trent Reznor, OK Go, and pretty much everyone funded by Kickstarter... But it could never work for you." This stuff doesn't because it's sprinkled with magic experiment dust. It works because the authors are doing good work, they're able to build a fan base, and they're able to make th…
The reason this was succesful for Louis CK is because it (for want of a better phrase) "went viral". People spread the existence of this around because he is being edgy, because he's doing something nobody else has the balls to do. If every artist released their creations independently, DRM free and without any "major label" backing this would have flown straight under the radar and been a resounding "meh" in sales.
This sold because it "went viral". The story of what he was trying to do, the desire to prove people wrong. This had the absolute perfect marketing; better marketing than money can buy, but this isn't a group of buyers with endless supplies of money. If what he did became the standard it would no longer succeed like this did.
How many years ago was it edgy to release an album on the internet? I wasn't on the internet back then so I can't provide any examples, but I'll put money on this happening and back then it being a guaranteed success because the people that wanted to prove that selling online could work bought it. I'm going to try and find one.