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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

#201

Post by paulhauggis »

wdewind wrote: post #26
po wrote: post #19

I 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 h…

You're missing the price aspect: at $5 it's hardly even worth it to torrent it when I can have a zero hassle download experience.

You would think that, but in an interview I heard, he said it's already been torrented.

I would be interested to see if the increase in torrents over time has a correlation with a decrease in sales. This also might depend on who the artists is. Some demos aren't that tech savvy.

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

#202

Post by interlagos »

DaveMebs wrote: post #73
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 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…

Remember The Plant?

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/00/11/30/1238204/stephen-king...

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

#203

Post by dodedo »

interlagos wrote: post #202
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…

Remember The Plant ? http://tech.slashdot.org/story/00/11/30/1238204/stephen-king...

I remember The Plant. Stephen King made over $700,000 writing a partial novel which he declined to finish not because it didn't turn a profit, but because his download statistics didn't show the opt-in payment ratios he wanted.

It's an instructive example of hubris and mis-aligned goals. Stephen wasn't interested in generating a profit. Had he raised the same revenue with half as many readers paying twice as often he would have continued the project.

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

#204

Post by interlagos »

dodedo wrote: post #203
interlagos wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember The Plant ? http://tech.slashdot.org/story/00/11/30/1238204/stephen-king...

I remember The Plant. Stephen King made over $700,000 writing a partial novel which he declined to finish not because it didn't turn a profit, but because his download statistics didn't show the opt-in payment ratios he wanted. It's an instructive example of hubris and mis-aligned goals. Stephen wasn't interested in generating a profit. Had he raised the same revenue with half as many readers paying twice as often he…

It is also an instructive example of novelty. His initial experiment was reported very widely, and tens or hundreds of thousands lined up to "prove it could work", putting their dollars to demonstrate it.

Once the novelty wore off, the viability of the approach disappeared. The opt-in payment ratios started generously, and rapidly approached zero.

Little can be learned from CK's experiment because it was novel -- it got covered far and wide, encouraging a lot of people to "show" that the model works.

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

#205

Post by jonnathanson »

onemoreact wrote: post #195
jonnathanson wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm all for this model. But a major challenge remains, and it's this: Trent Reznor, Radiohead, and even Louis C.K. were all hugely popular and successful before they employed this model. Can the model work for lesser-known artists attempting to capture an audience? In theory, sure. If anything, I could see this model's working out quite well for the proverbial little guy. But first, that little guy faces a big challe…

The current model does not work for less popular artists, so I have trouble seeing the downside.

I'm anything but an apologist for the current model. But if it disappears, we haven't necessarily made life any better for lesser-known artists. So if we are to remove one of the critical steps to success (i.e., the marketing and promotional spend of traditional labels, publishers, networks, and studios), we should hope that there's a viable replacement. Or we should try to build one.

In our haste to cast out the old guard, we tend to lose sight of the fact that the old guard still fills what appears to be a necessary purpose: the breaking-out of artists. I'm confident and hopeful that their crucial role in that purpose will, eventually, weaken or fade. But for now, it's still a strong reality.

Ultimately, we have yet to see indications that this new model is any kinder to small-time or nascent artists than the old model is. That's the big problem. The winners of the new model (Radiohead, Trent Reznor, Louis C.K., et al.) have first been winners of the old model. So it's very premature to say that the new model is better for the little guy.

To put it in financial terms: the new model holds bigger theoretical upside (share of profits) for artists and consumers (reduced costs). But it does nothing about the downside (risk of never breaking out, financial burden of building a fanbase, etc.), and may even make the downside worse for most artists. At least the little guy in today's model has a chance, albeit extremely slim, of getting discovered and catching a big break. But will the same thing be true in a pure long-tail environment? The jury is still out.

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

#206

Post by thebigshane »

This is great news. I know Radiohead and Trent Reznor had similar results, but to avoid selection bias[1], does anybody know of an artist/musician/producer/etc that tried this and failed[2]?

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias

[2]: or at least wasn't as enormously successful as these three

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

#207

Post by mikeash »

interlagos wrote: post #202
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…

Remember The Plant ? http://tech.slashdot.org/story/00/11/30/1238204/stephen-king...

I'm not sure that one can really compare a written story sold on the internet over a decade ago, before pretty much anybody had a decent reader for such things, with a video being sold online today when literally tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of people own the right equipment for viewing it comfortably.

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

#208

Post by interlagos »

mikeash wrote: post #207
interlagos wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember The Plant ? http://tech.slashdot.org/story/00/11/30/1238204/stephen-king...

I'm not sure that one can really compare a written story sold on the internet over a decade ago, before pretty much anybody had a decent reader for such things, with a video being sold online today when literally tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of people own the right equipment for viewing it comfortably.

The comparison is the hype, delivery, and conclusions. After the initial release of the Plant there was much fanfare about its demonstrated validation of a sales model, yet it was a completely atypical example that earned tremendous publicity and enhanced engagement because it was novel.

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

#209

Post by AgentConundrum »

DaveMebs wrote: post #76
ddw wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He makes it seem like he won't be using that list: > and they would have owned your private information for their own use. > You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again. And I think Louis CK is going to be Louis CK's EP from now on. EDIT: Forgot about the "don't contact me" default on the purchase screen.

When you go to the purchase screen you can choose between "contact me," and "don't contact me." To Louis' credit the default is "don't contact me," but I as a fan actually opted in to receive future notifications. I fully expect to be notified next time this opportunity arises (and I am probably not alone).

I opted in as well. I was sort of disappointed that the results of the "opt-out sub-experiment" weren't discussed in this statement. He's mentioned it in interviews - on NPR and repeatedly on reddit, at least - that he's got huge feedback on that little decision. It's also something that people, present company included, love to talk about. It would be interesting to see how many people decided to opt-in because he defaulted to opt-out.

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

#210

Post by sunchild »

sc00ter wrote: post #197

I'm glad it's worked out for him, and unless I'm misunderstanding, it seems he's double-counting his production costs in working out his (pre-tax) profit, so he may have done even better than that: "the production of the video cost around $170,000. (This was largely paid for by the tickets bought by the audiences at both shows)" "12 hours [after launching] we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breakin…

I was more concerned that he paid $35K for a paypal-powered commerce site that sends plaintext passwords by email.
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