Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

buy.louisck.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 46 posts

Re: Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

#31

Post by res0nat0r »

methodin wrote: post #19
batista wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's not "a guy". He's very famous and has his own TV show that he created, starred, wrote and post-produced on his macbook. So, "a famous guy self publishes on the internet". Does that make it MORE news-worthy? Famous guys have been self-publishing on the internet for a long-long time. >Also, he's also selling his stuff, without a middleman, DRM-free and with a very decent price. Like tens of thousands of other ar…

What's unique here is the whole package - the personal touch, the cheap product, the honesty and openness. I have never seen anything equivalent on any big-name person/band on the internet. If you have specific examples please share them because the Radiohead experiment was one-off and it has long since ended. Of course small bands/artists have been doing this - they have no choice. Very few people break away from th…

I think what batista is referring to is the amount of fanboyism on HN related to these Louis CK threads (and it shows, since his posts are turning grey).

The personal touch thing works because he is a comedian, it isn't anything new and exciting that hasn't been done before. It works for him because he is in comedy. Do you think the AWS homepage should have something like 'Yo dawg, I heard you like EC2, so get up in a m1.xlarge for only $0.08 an hour'? That doesn't work because it is a huge corporation employing thousands of people. The Louis CK site is representing one person, who is in comedy.

These endeavors work for him because he is one of the most popular standup comedians out there and is loved by everyone in the biz, so it is easy for him to go at this alone since he already has the fanbase.

I just hope that everyone isn't assuming that since Louis CK made $200k profit off of his last endeavor that they think they can demand HBO release Game of Thrones online, worldwide the same minute it airs on TV.

Re: Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

#32

Post by encoderer »

jrockway wrote: post #5

What's more interesting is that he got HBO to release their content in a DRM-free format. (HBO is the network that previously wouldn't let you buy their online video service unless you already had cable and an HBO subscription, rather defeating the purpose of buying the content online.) This is what fighting piracy looks like.

Also worth mentioning that they don't "let you buy" their content: it's just all free. All of it.

I know it sucks that you can't subscribe to HBO Go without being a cable customer. But for existing HBO users, it's a very, very well done service. The iPad app is gorgeous and well engineered. It has basically every epoisode of every season of every HBO series, all HBO original movies, and as far as I can tell nearly every HBO original documentary, comedy special, etc. And of course all of the movies HBO is currently running in their rotation.

HBO on Cable runs about $13 a month. I'm sure they could sell subscriptions just to Go for $20-25. But HBO wants to be a Cable service, not an Internet service. Nothing wrong with that. They're not luddites trying to avoid technology: they're using it very effectively. They're just using it in the way that suits their business model and philosophy.

Re: Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

#33

Post by antidoh »

batista wrote: post #14

A guy self-publishes stuff on the internet. News at 11.

The news is that he's part of the Big Content establishment, or at least he's as much a part of it as he chooses to be. He makes networks millions. And despite being part of that establishment, and having as much motivation as any other DRM-using publisher, he chooses to go DRM-free, and still makes money. His customers are happy, and he's happy.

The smack-talking personality and humor in his site copy is all icing on the cake, it's the money-making non-DRM sales that's news, relevant, and worth paying attention to.

Re: Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

#35

Post by methodin »

res0nat0r wrote: post #31
methodin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's unique here is the whole package - the personal touch, the cheap product, the honesty and openness. I have never seen anything equivalent on any big-name person/band on the internet. If you have specific examples please share them because the Radiohead experiment was one-off and it has long since ended. Of course small bands/artists have been doing this - they have no choice. Very few people break away from th…

I think what batista is referring to is the amount of fanboyism on HN related to these Louis CK threads (and it shows, since his posts are turning grey). The personal touch thing works because he is a comedian , it isn't anything new and exciting that hasn't been done before. It works for him because he is in comedy. Do you think the AWS homepage should have something like 'Yo dawg, I heard you like EC2, so get up in…

I personally have no particular affinity towards Louis C.K. but I can sympathize with disliking fanboyism threads on here. That being said I don't know why you attempt to equate this particular form of marketing to corporations or other non-artistic entities. It makes no sense, as you said. For artists and groups that people like, support and spend money to watch, I don't see why the mechanics of what Louis C.K. is doing wouldn't translate to success assuming a current baseline of supporters. After all if all major comedians did this then that would certainly cause a stir.

I don't believe anyone would make that correlation with shows. It does seem to support, however, that by offering such things at a low-cost (low barrier to entry) that they would tend to be just as successful as the package deals and other ways in which companies like HBO get you to buy them.

Re: Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

#36

Post by petercooper »

methodin wrote: post #19
batista wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's not "a guy". He's very famous and has his own TV show that he created, starred, wrote and post-produced on his macbook. So, "a famous guy self publishes on the internet". Does that make it MORE news-worthy? Famous guys have been self-publishing on the internet for a long-long time. >Also, he's also selling his stuff, without a middleman, DRM-free and with a very decent price. Like tens of thousands of other ar…

What's unique here is the whole package - the personal touch, the cheap product, the honesty and openness. I have never seen anything equivalent on any big-name person/band on the internet. If you have specific examples please share them because the Radiohead experiment was one-off and it has long since ended. Of course small bands/artists have been doing this - they have no choice. Very few people break away from th…

I have never seen anything equivalent on any big-name person/band on the internet. If you have specific examples please share them because the Radiohead experiment was one-off and it has long since ended.

batista already mentioned Stephen King.

It was sometime around 2000 and he decided to release a chapter at a time for free while accepting donations. He set some sort of barrier (I think it was 50%) and if the donations/downloads ratio fell below that, he'd stop publishing. After several chapters, the percentage inevitably fell under the 50% and he stopped publishing.

It was a novel (pun intended) experiment but at the time I certainly felt King was being quite antagonistic to the audience with the constant threats to cancel the experiment. And, well, I don't think the book was very good either, although it did go on to be published traditionally later on.

The idea of the e-book was very nascent at the time and there was no real understanding of what formats to use and on what devices (and e-books 10+ years ago were almost entirely for desktop use). If King did the same now using a Louis CK model, it would probably work well but.. heck, King doesn't need to try it because he's already as wealthy as any author should wish to be.

Re: Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

#37

Post by theon144 »

Pkeod wrote: post #28
fromhet wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You get 4 downloads" Why limit it? It seems totally against the point. Why not even let people download a torrent and they can get the video on as many devices as they please and it wont even stress his servers.

Distributing by torrent is different from providing a quality download service with purchase. If someone really wants to download by torrent and wait then what's stopping them from paying and then doing that. Limiting number of downloads protects their bandwidth from would be jerks. Protecting their service is important for their customers to have a quality experience. It's fair, and most people will only ever downlo…

Torrent != copyright infringing downloading. What the commenter you're replying to meant was something like what Humble Indie Bundle did - after you buy the bundle, you can also officially and legally download it using bittorrent (as opposed to HTTP), not hitting their servers but rather volunteers.

Re: Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

#38

Post by georgemcbay »

encoderer wrote: post #32
jrockway wrote: post #5

What's more interesting is that he got HBO to release their content in a DRM-free format. (HBO is the network that previously wouldn't let you buy their online video service unless you already had cable and an HBO subscription, rather defeating the purpose of buying the content online.) This is what fighting piracy looks like.

Also worth mentioning that they don't "let you buy" their content: it's just all free. All of it. I know it sucks that you can't subscribe to HBO Go without being a cable customer. But for existing HBO users, it's a very, very well done service. The iPad app is gorgeous and well engineered. It has basically every epoisode of every season of every HBO series, all HBO original movies, and as far as I can tell nearly ev…

"HBO on Cable runs about $13 a month."

HBO on Cable costs $13 plus whatever your basic cable fees, which after "introductory rates" often means $80/mo or more. Granted, you get more than just HBO then, but in the case that you just want HBO and nothing else there is no sanely priced option.

Re: Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

#39

Post by ineedafresca »

This is an excellent marketing case study. He found a segment that is passionate about the issue and launched a product, with simple messaging, that he was uniquely positioned to build, that played directly into that passion. All the little touches, like the "I am a human" are perfect to re-enforce his value prop. Boards like this provide him the virality he eneds to get the word out. This is really startup 101 stuff.

Re: Louis CK does it again - 2 audio shows without DRM at $5 each

#40

Post by CountSessine »

cf0ed2aa-bdf5 wrote: post #24
donald_draper wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol - I bought the first video, and now one of the audios. However, at the end of the process I didn't remember my old password. So I clicked 'I forgot my password' and it said 'Oh my god, you're an idiot' and sent me an email with a new one - a random password beginning with the letters 'idiot' :-D Love the humour.

I forgot my password as well, it started with 'moron'. :(

Me too. 'numbnuts'. :-)
Post reply on HN