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

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

#131

Post by kahawe »

Yes, nowadays you can easily record video and audio and edit both very comfortably on your home computer and if you know a bit what you are doing, you will get pretty good results.

Yes, nowadays there are a lot of ways of easily distributing music, especially online and yes, as the artist you will be keeping more per sold unit.

Yes, "surprisingly" your fans will want to pay for your albums - is it really so surprising? They also buy your merch and pay good money for seeing you perform live. So the whole "people aren't paying for music anymore" is nothing but propaganda.

Now here is the thing: this has been done a couple of times before, e.g. by Radiohead and then by Trent Reznor and NIN and probably a few others.

The point is: Reznor, NIN, Radiohead and Louis CK can do that kind of thing because they are ridiculously famous and successful. But for any other bands or musicians, I doubt they would have remotely that much success with a stunt like that. A lot of bands publish music online but come on, that is more a way of presenting themselves than it is a super easy and fast way to make half a million for them.

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

#132

Post by Tuna-Fish »

steve-howard wrote: post #107
nettdata wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The entire M.O. of the modern music industry is to shatter our preconceptions of just how short-sighted somebody can possibly be.

This is because the modern music industry honestly believes that it is going to go the way of a dodo.

When you think that your sources of revenue are dying, it makes sense to try and extract as much as you can from them on the short term, despite the damage it does to them long term.

Of course, this makes the prediction self-reinforcing.

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

#133

Post by Tichy »

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…

I think that kind of thing is often also done with a twist: the artist whose content is put online for free (or very cheap) does not get a dime. After all, no money is made from selling his stuff. Meanwhile the company profits nicely in the way you describe, selling other stuff. Not saying it worked that way for you, just that it is an old technique...

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

#134

Post by kahawe »

aresant wrote: post #23

Louis C.K. deserves all credit for showing that you don't need a label, that non-DRM distribution's benefits outweigh its costs, etc. Yet to me the real lesson is about the remarkable PR he's built for this story around being the "purple cow" and his ability to market to his audience (holding a AMA on Reddit even).

> for showing that you don't need a label,

you mean: for showing that Louis CK doesn't need a label.

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

#136

Post by danssig »

citricsquid wrote: post #13

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…

Also keep in mind it may not have "worked for him". He made $200k less than he would have using the traditional route. Who knows how long it will take to make that additional $200k from this offering (if he ever will) and I'm skeptical about counting "the long tail" because he would have probably had residuals on a traditional DVD as well.

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

#137

Post by BrandonM »

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…

> But to say he hasn't done any publicity to this point is stretching the truth - he's promoted it all over his Twitter, gone on Reddit, did an interview on NPR, etc.

This is all stuff that he was able to do from the comfort of his own home. An HBO/Comedy Central/other contract would also stipulate that he make the rounds of Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, David Letterman, and numerous radio shows to promote the material. Those kinds of appearances are critical for expanding your fan base, since they give an essentially captive audience a chance to be exposed to a performer's material. Just look at his viral "Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy" routine that helped get a lot of his current fan base.

The point is, he hasn't even begun to do the type of promotion that he typically would be contractually obligated to do, yet he's already closing in on the amount he usually expects to make. This looks like a wildly successful experiment.

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

#138

Post by BrandonM »

citricsquid wrote: post #104
nl wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason it works for those specific groups is because of their fan base. That's exactly the point. I think you are trying to argue that people outside Loius CK's fanbase bought this because of the desire to prove people wrong . You might be correct in part, but that isn't the whole story. Do you think that if Britney Spears tomorrow launched a similar "DRM free pay what you want" sale that and the "viral" element…

That's completely irrelevant. Imagine there is a time when releasing music/video or any other form of media is done independently without a label and without DRM. Will people who release stuff in this way be hailed heroes and make sales because of of how they're selling? of course not. That's what is happening here with Louis CK. If the standard for publication and sale of media was what he was doing here we wouldn't…

I think you're missing the larger point.

One option is to cater to your fans, to cultivate a large fan base, and then to offer them a convenient way to support you.

Another option is to cater to the whims of a production company, promote your record with late show appearances, cut into your profits with advertising and middle-man salaries, and then hope that a large faceless audience buys enough DRM-encumbered media to clear your advance.

The point is that it's a better experience all around to have that connection to your fans and to enjoy the fruits of your labor without having to compromise your ideals or give money to a bunch of people who added very little to the creative process. The world is a bit better when there is a direct connection between artists and their fans and when those fans care enough to want their favored artist to make a living and keep being able to focus on the craft.

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

#139

Post by digispaghetti »

steve-howard wrote: post #107
nettdata wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The entire M.O. of the modern music industry is to shatter our preconceptions of just how short-sighted somebody can possibly be.

Shows like the X-Factor, and the endless tirade of crappy movies, prove this - big labels are essentially music/film factories that pump out the lowest common denominator, wrapped in a DRM bundle.

Here we have someone who loves their craft, actually has some respect for the fans and proves that by willing to put trust in them, and it paid off.

It's not going to work for everyone - if you're not established I think this model will be quite hard to work with at the moment, but it opens up spots for independent companies to step in and help provide the distribution channels needed (and we've already seen this work with music to some extent).

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

#140

Post by angrycoder »

sixQuarks wrote: post #69

Why did it cost $200,000 to produce and host the video? That seems way too expensive. $32,000 on the web site and hosting? Are you kidding me? Bandwidth shouldn't cost more than $100 per TB. Seems like he got ripped off big time.

You think he can just have his buddy record on his cellphone, edit it in Windows Movie Maker, and throw it up on a linode instance?
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