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Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

buy.louisck.net

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Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#81

Post by nettdata »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #37

I'm glad he made some money on it. His mind will be blown when the 'long tail' kicks in (people buying this video 3 years from now, still). He mentions "This [$200,000] is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video." Here is the part where this can go off the rails. So the long tail will hit, peopl…

Back in the early days of the internet, I was the IT Manager at Nettwerk Records. We went out of our way to put complete, high quality MP3's of every song we owned the rights to online, for free, because we were willing to let the music stand on its own. We believed that it was worth giving potential new fans the chance to hear what they were (hopefully) buying, and that really was the case.

We had so much obscure music in the back catalogue that people would browse our archives, find a band that they'd never heard before, listen to a few songs, and then buy one of their CD's. More often than not, people would buy multiple CD's.

For that matter, when Sarah McLachlan's first big album, Surfacing, came out, the day that it hit the shelves we also put the entire thing in (for the time) high quality MP3's up on our web site for people to grab copies of.

And even if they didn't buy the CD, we hoped that they'd enjoy the music enough that they'd come out to see her in concert, or at Lilith Fair.

That kind of worked out not too badly, it turns out.

Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#82

Post by ookblah »

jmonegro wrote: post #18

Is it me or do I find $32,000 for that website a bit too much?

Why are all the downvotes on comments relating to the website cost? I thought it was pretty high as well when I read that, I mean sure you pay much more for peace of mind, but that's like a 100% markup. And the red on black text wasn't a great choice IMO.

Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#83

Post by Fliko »

jmtame wrote: post #12

When 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.

Saul Williams has always said he was very happy with the result despite 80% of downloaders taking it for free.

Trent made a point later on the nin forum that allowing people to choose how much your product is worth really devalues it, but offering it at a cheap but fair price (say $5) doesn't devalue it.

Personally I think the best model is setting a cheap bottom line that people can pay for your product, and letting them pay more if they feel it is worth more (adding extra stuff for the people who pay more is good too, like a physical copy of the CD for people who pay $20). You don't have to use your bandwidth to give it out for free, the pirates will do that and I think it's safe to say that if someone pirates your album they are probably going to turn into a fan (or be turned off).

Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#84

Post by hooande »

Is it just me, or is Louie sounding more and more like a part of the hn/reddit crowd? He went from "I don't know what this 'torrent' thing is" (implied: "I'm not a nerd or anything") to being excited about online distribution and avoiding DRM. I've been a fan of his for some time and this seems unlike him. I think it's pretty cool to see someone's geeky side being exposed publicly.

Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#85

Post by MikeCapone »

radley wrote: post #68
rkudeshi wrote: post #36

Devil's advocate: In the post, he himself says he would've earned more by doing a show for HBO/Comedy Central/other (also note that he mentions, but doesn't factor in the cost of his own time in putting this all together). Given that a lot of people purchased this only to support "the experiment" (i.e. they might not buy the next time he or someone else does this), does this really demonstrate the success of selling…

It's been 4 days. Think George Carlin or Richard Pryor - i.e. watching great old stand-up 20 years later. No royalties - all self-owned. He could sell for $1 ea and still make more than the flat fee.

Exactly. This is a pretty timeless show. It won't get stale quickly. If it's already considered a success after 4 days, imagine in 4 years.

Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#86

Post by r0s »

rkudeshi wrote: post #36

Devil's advocate: In the post, he himself says he would've earned more by doing a show for HBO/Comedy Central/other (also note that he mentions, but doesn't factor in the cost of his own time in putting this all together). Given that a lot of people purchased this only to support "the experiment" (i.e. they might not buy the next time he or someone else does this), does this really demonstrate the success of selling…

I can only imagine the overhead is much lower compared to a HBO production. Compound that against every future sale as well.

Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#87

Post by MikeCapone »

natch wrote: post #55

I love that this worked, even though I'm not buying. For me it's a value-for-the-money thing. I'm sure I can spare the $5, and I'm sure I would enjoy it, but still, I get a huge amount more value from my $8 monthly-fee-for-a-limited-selection Internet streaming service (yeah, that one, I still love it even after the bumps). It's really great for our freedom from DRM that this worked, and I almost bought it just to su…

So if $5 is too much for a show, how much would you pay? $1? 25 cents?

Just curious. At those prices, only the very mass-market stuff will make any money. Anything niche just won't pay for itself.

Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#88

Post by redthrowaway »

patio11 wrote: post #53
ChuckMcM wrote: post #37

I'm glad he made some money on it. His mind will be blown when the 'long tail' kicks in (people buying this video 3 years from now, still). He mentions "This [$200,000] is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video." Here is the part where this can go off the rails. So the long tail will hit, peopl…

More valuable than the long tail is that he probably has an email list of ~20,000 people -- and more by the hour -- who have demonstrated interest in paying money for Louis C.K. comedy specials. I trust I don't need to tell you what to do with that if you're the exclusive producer of Louis C.K. comedy specials.

I'm curious where you're getting the 20k figure from. He mentions only that he's sold over 110k copies, but not what percentage of people opted in to the mail list.

Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#89

Post by redthrowaway »

hooande wrote: post #84

Is it just me, or is Louie sounding more and more like a part of the hn/reddit crowd? He went from "I don't know what this 'torrent' thing is" (implied: "I'm not a nerd or anything") to being excited about online distribution and avoiding DRM. I've been a fan of his for some time and this seems unlike him. I think it's pretty cool to see someone's geeky side being exposed publicly.

He's surrounded by that crowd. Remember, it was recommended to him that he release without DRM (not by the industry folks) and that he do a (wildly successful) AMA.

Also, as an artist, it has to be just pretty damned cool to see an experiment like this work, and be able to connect directly with fans who are willing to fork over money.

Re: Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days

#90

Post by nettdata »

nettdata wrote: post #81
ChuckMcM wrote: post #37

I'm glad he made some money on it. His mind will be blown when the 'long tail' kicks in (people buying this video 3 years from now, still). He mentions "This [$200,000] is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video." Here is the part where this can go off the rails. So the long tail will hit, peopl…

Back in the early days of the internet, I was the IT Manager at Nettwerk Records. We went out of our way to put complete, high quality MP3's of every song we owned the rights to online, for free, because we were willing to let the music stand on its own. We believed that it was worth giving potential new fans the chance to hear what they were (hopefully) buying, and that really was the case. We had so much obscure mu…

Forgot to mention that the underlying concept was that it was more profitable, in the long run, to make a fan than it was to make a sale.
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