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I'm very interested in how this turns out. I personally have never heard of Jim Gaffigan and Louis CK has steadily been gaining mainstream popularity. When music artists did this, didn't their popularity have a significant part of their success?
It also seemed strange that he is pre-announcing this release. I think this initial post will be his biggest shot at publicity, and it is peculiar to have no call-to-action (i.e. check out my related comedy if you've never heard of me, go ahead and pre-order it now, etc.). Right now there is nowhere for the reader to go after finishing the post (his "videos" tab isn't representative of his standup comedy) and there is very little for a reader to share about this story besides "Somebody is planning on doing something like Louis CK did."
I'll be impressed if I remember or hear about this again in April, when the special is actually released.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup, the novelty will wear off over time, just like the "pre-ordering of PC games" space after Minecraft was released. Minecraft was a huge hit with that model, the others less so.
Minecraft's success had very little to do with the model of "pre-ordering PC games", and very much to do with being an amazing product (even in it's pre-release state). Delivery novelty may account for a fraction of the overall effect - it's certainly not the central reason for a commercial success.
Minecraft was sold as a preorder when in Alpha, with buyers expecting to shape the future direction of the product as it gets "made". This worked in that case, but not in the iso zombie mess case.
With these comedy sales, the novelty again is in the manner of selling. One big shot, some mob mentality, hype and Reddit. Everyone sharing the moment. The hope is a big pay day, but each time there's fewer people who haven't seen/felt the "trick"/emotion before.
His post seemed a bit off to me. I got the feeling that he's doing this because "Oh look, Louis CK made metric ton of money this way, lets see if I can emulate his success" rather than actually understanding the motivations for why consumers want a 5 dollar, drm free comedy special. It also seemed strange that he is pre-announcing this release. I think this initial post will be his biggest shot at publicity, and it i…
I'm very interested in how this turns out. I personally have never heard of Jim Gaffigan and Louis CK has steadily been gaining mainstream popularity. When music artists did this, didn't their popularity have a significant part of their success?
Currently, there is a huge incentive for performers and artists to follow this route of distributing their content. It is still seen as novel and championed by fans, resulting in increased exposure that wouldn't of happened if they would of chosen a normal route for selling their products. Don't get me wrong, it's good to see this stuff happening but I think the more we see of it the less effective it will be for the…
His post seemed a bit off to me. I got the feeling that he's doing this because "Oh look, Louis CK made metric ton of money this way, lets see if I can emulate his success" rather than actually understanding the motivations for why consumers want a 5 dollar, drm free comedy special. It also seemed strange that he is pre-announcing this release. I think this initial post will be his biggest shot at publicity, and it i…
But even if he is riding the coat-tails of Louis CK, isn't it still a good thing that more people are starting to provide direct content for very reasonable prices?
Since this is only the second time a (well known, mainstream) comedian has tried this, a failure or even just a poorer-than-expected showing could make a lot of other entertainers write Louis CK off as being a one-time thing. They'll assume he succeeded as a novelty and will be more wary of trying it in the future.
We need Gaffigan to succeed to show that the model is repeatable in order to convince others to try it. If he fails, it will be that much harder to convince others that they're not better off just following the status quo.
His post seemed a bit off to me. I got the feeling that he's doing this because "Oh look, Louis CK made metric ton of money this way, lets see if I can emulate his success" rather than actually understanding the motivations for why consumers want a 5 dollar, drm free comedy special. It also seemed strange that he is pre-announcing this release. I think this initial post will be his biggest shot at publicity, and it i…
But even if he is riding the coat-tails of Louis CK, isn't it still a good thing that more people are starting to provide direct content for very reasonable prices?
I want him to succeed. I want to be able to watch a trailer of his video, think it is hilarious, go through a one minute payment process, and have the video to watch instantly right after that in whatever format I want. If that is Gaffigan's plan, why bother pre-announcing it? Why not just wait till he has something to sell?
Even if the video is highly pirated, I wonder if he will make more with his $5 per distribution then with the $0.XX he would get otherwise. People say that the internet will destroy creative enterprise, but I think just the opposite. I think artists will be more empowered once they embrace the opportunities of this new medium and learn to cut out the middlemen.
And really, this is nothing all that new. Musicians have been creating their own labels for decades, often selling as an imprint to larger labels.
I think the key takeaway here is the distribution model, not necessarily the organizational model. The Gaffigans and Radioheads and Louie CKs of the world don't have the organizational baggage that the big content producers have. They also don't have the supposed things to lose that the big producers have. So, they're freer to experiment.
I hope, and I'm sure many media consumers agree with me, that as these big acts begin to diverge from their former masters and build their own organizations, that the distribution model that survives long term is the one that doesn't ultimately attempt to screw over us consumers.
Time will tell, I suppose.