Louis C.K. experiment results: over $500,000 in 4 days • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by vidarh » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 10:36 AM UTC

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.

Using your bandwidth price, his bandwidth costs alone will have easily exceeded $10k. Assuming $22,000 as a top end estimate for design, development and somewhere to host it sounds quite reasonable to me. If he hasn't chosen a bargain basement designer and developers, it's not uncommon to pay $1k+ per day for an agency. 20-22 man days if we exclude hosting costs, from concept, through proper design, content, development, testing and deployment isn't much at all.

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

#162

Post by rplnt » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 10:36 AM UTC

harryf wrote: post #158

And then Paypal freezes his account for suspicious activity...

I hope that handling these issues is in the $32,000 he paid for a website (&co).

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

#163

Post by maximusprime » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 10:46 AM UTC

This is clever marketing, and it worked - Although it is not innovative, new, or even news, it's top of HN.

The story here is how to market to Reddit/HN rather than anything else.

IMHO It would also be a stretch to call him a comedian.

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

#164

Post by pepijndevos » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 10:50 AM UTC

He spent that much on the website, and still has unreadable red-on-black text?

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

#165

Post by Corrado » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 11:01 AM UTC

I have said for the past 10 years or so that I would gladly pay a small fee directly to an entertainer instead of having them get an even smaller fee from a middle-man. For example, torrent the latest Rush album + give the band $5 directly = everyone (who matters) is happy. I have the satisfaction of supporting my favorite artist and Rush has quite a few more $$$s directly in their pocket.

All we have to do if find a way to send money directly to an entertainer and keep the (MP|RI)AA off our backs. Maybe this would be a good startup idea. Provide a "Pay Me" button (implemented with Stripe :) for artists to stick on their site. Joe consumer torrents their work then visits their site and clicks the button. Neat and easy. Of course, then you become the middle-man...

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

#166

Post by manpat » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 11:03 AM UTC

BrandonM wrote: post #137

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. T…

Actually, he has already done Conan (all week-special in NY back in October) where he clearly stated some details about his upcoming "$5-show".

Also, today he's doing Leno.

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

#167

Post by maximusprime » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 11:07 AM UTC

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…

> " today's most most popular working comedian"

Are you serious? Most popular on Reddit and other liberal political communities maybe. I don't think anyone would claim he's the most popular comedian working today.

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

#168

Post by dasil003 » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 11:21 AM UTC

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 don't disagree, but I think the more interesting angle is not that people are "supporting an experiment", but that so few A-listers are doing it this way so it stands out and attracts attention without any marketing effort. If everyone did it this way then no one would be impressed and he would have to fight for attention just like everything else in the normal marketplace.

That said, the normal marketplace has completely lost sight of pleasing the consumer, and instead they're trying to fleece us for everything they can get. An example is the price of Blu-rays and the fact that they still force you to sit through 20 mins of ads every fucking time you want to watch the movie you paid an arm and a leg for.

So even though I'm cynical about the industry, it's refreshing that Louis can do something like this in such a plainspoken way and really move the needle, giving the industry execs something to think about at least.

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

#169

Post by chocoheadfred » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 11:22 AM UTC

I wonder how much he had made from us talking about him here?

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

#170

Post by philhippus » Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 11:34 AM UTC

sirclueless wrote: post #115

DaveMebs wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there is any evidence to support the notion that "a lot of people purchased this only to support the experiment." Sure, some folks on a HN thread commented to this effect, but I think that the vast majority of the 111000+ people who bought this probably like Louis CK. I recognize that I don't have any data to support my assertion either, but given the options of "buy this because I like Louis CK" and "b…

Well, almost all of the facebook shares about this that I have seen are exclusively about the novelty and experiment. I didn't see anything that just left it at "Oh, Louis C.K. is awesome. Check out his new thing." So at least anecdotally, a lot of people around me bought this because of novelty and to support this business model instead of because they like standup or Louis CK.

I think that says something about his target audience. People are capable of more complex thought than "funny man is funny" and the usual base instincts that marketers have exploited to great effect. This marketing ploy adds an extra layer to customer involvement, just mildly stimulating the slightly higher faculties of the consumer base cognisance. As sentient biological super-computers that human beings are, they easily comprehend the concept and gladly exchange money to support it.