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Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

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Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#11

Post by smackfu »

ryandvm wrote: post #8
jrockway wrote: post #2

One factual error that the article makes is that DRM'd content is harder to pirate. That is simply not the case; every piece of content ever released is easily pirate-able. The only thing that DRM does is hurt legitimate users. Also, I was kind of upset by the "letter" that the person who uploaded the torrent wrote. "Art is meant to be shared"? Why bother justifying it with something that sounds stupid when you could…

> I never realized that Louis C.K. was so mainstream. I thought his humor appealed to me and maybe three other people. Well, he does have his own show on FX.

FX is the home of non-mainstream comedies.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#12

Post by blhack »

yan wrote: post #5
aspir wrote: post #3

This most important piece here is that he's already broken even. Wow! I'd love to see the numbers comparing a Comedy Central production and Louis' self funded production. I bet there's countless areas of negligent spending in the CC production.

First, I think what Louis is doing is amazing and am a huge fan. Having said that however, how many other comedians can pull this off? He has a very large, very dedicated audience. Likewise for music. Trent Reznor can pull off very successful self-productions, but he's also Trent Reznor. The question is, how can you make this model scale down to lesser-known acts?

Well...look at stuff like Minecraft. Notch was nobody, he just made something that people wanted.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#13

Post by snarkyturtle »

Except people don't do Comedy Central specials for the money, they do it to get exposure. Heralding C.K's success is like how people praised Radiohead for releasing their album independently. He already has a rabid and loyal fan base, but that's after working the comedy scene, writing for big shows, having stand-up specials on HBO. This article makes it seem like anybody can generate their own material, promote it and eventually have their own TV show, but there's a lot more to it than that.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#14

Post by johnthedebs »

yan wrote: post #5
aspir wrote: post #3

This most important piece here is that he's already broken even. Wow! I'd love to see the numbers comparing a Comedy Central production and Louis' self funded production. I bet there's countless areas of negligent spending in the CC production.

First, I think what Louis is doing is amazing and am a huge fan. Having said that however, how many other comedians can pull this off? He has a very large, very dedicated audience. Likewise for music. Trent Reznor can pull off very successful self-productions, but he's also Trent Reznor. The question is, how can you make this model scale down to lesser-known acts?

The best way to scale this down to lesser-known acts is to reduce the barriers to entry for both the comic and the audience.

More specifically, if comics had a free service or tool that allowed them to set a price, upload some content, and have a promotional site like he had for his show it could work wonders. YouTube does this pretty well, but what he's done is much better (though there's a lot of benefit to having lots of videos in one place with good discoverability). Recording and editing is also getting cheaper every day.

To lower the barrier for the audience, shows for new acts would need to be even cheaper or free. Once they build a following they can start charging more.

The iTunes model is almost certainly the one to follow here: sell it cheap and go for volume. If the content is good and the barrier is low, people will eat it up and the artists will get their fair share and more. The middlemen in this equation are really the biggest problem right now (for so many reasons).

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#15

Post by pyre »

chwahoo wrote: post #7
jrockway wrote: post #2

One factual error that the article makes is that DRM'd content is harder to pirate. That is simply not the case; every piece of content ever released is easily pirate-able. The only thing that DRM does is hurt legitimate users. Also, I was kind of upset by the "letter" that the person who uploaded the torrent wrote. "Art is meant to be shared"? Why bother justifying it with something that sounds stupid when you could…

"One factual error that the article makes is that DRM'd content is harder to pirate. That is simply not the case; every piece of content ever released is easily pirate-able. The only thing that DRM does is hurt legitimate users." That's hardly a "factual error". I can email an mp3 to my friend and have them play it. I can't do the same with a DRM'd song. Is that not harder? Instead I have to make extra efforts to str…

I think the point the parent was making is that all it takes it one person stripping the DRM and the content is on the Internet (torrents, usenet, private ftps, etc). It might not be easy to share person-to-person (for non-technical users), but if one just searches the Internet the content would be there somewhere.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#17

Post by Ryanmf »

yan wrote: post #5
aspir wrote: post #3

This most important piece here is that he's already broken even. Wow! I'd love to see the numbers comparing a Comedy Central production and Louis' self funded production. I bet there's countless areas of negligent spending in the CC production.

First, I think what Louis is doing is amazing and am a huge fan. Having said that however, how many other comedians can pull this off? He has a very large, very dedicated audience. Likewise for music. Trent Reznor can pull off very successful self-productions, but he's also Trent Reznor. The question is, how can you make this model scale down to lesser-known acts?

I hate this argument. So let's take it a step further.

How can this model scale down to unpopular acts? Or untalented ones? Or people who just started making art last week?

Because everyone who makes any art at all is entitled to compensation, right?

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#18

Post by yan »

blhack wrote: post #12
yan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, I think what Louis is doing is amazing and am a huge fan. Having said that however, how many other comedians can pull this off? He has a very large, very dedicated audience. Likewise for music. Trent Reznor can pull off very successful self-productions, but he's also Trent Reznor. The question is, how can you make this model scale down to lesser-known acts?

Well...look at stuff like Minecraft. Notch was nobody, he just made something that people wanted.

Notch was also an anomaly. I agree that it's a beautiful story, but rules aren't defined by their exceptions.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#19

Post by snarkyturtle »

yan wrote: post #5
aspir wrote: post #3

This most important piece here is that he's already broken even. Wow! I'd love to see the numbers comparing a Comedy Central production and Louis' self funded production. I bet there's countless areas of negligent spending in the CC production.

First, I think what Louis is doing is amazing and am a huge fan. Having said that however, how many other comedians can pull this off? He has a very large, very dedicated audience. Likewise for music. Trent Reznor can pull off very successful self-productions, but he's also Trent Reznor. The question is, how can you make this model scale down to lesser-known acts?

In terms of distribution, SoundCloud and YouTube is very very close to being a good alternative to centrally-run companies of old. In terms of comedy, Derrick Comedy was actually really popular even before one of their stars got on Network television, simply from uploading videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/derrickcomedy.

Musically, one artist that's blown up solely from releasing their own material on the internet is The Weeknd ( http://www.the-weeknd.com/) , who makes and posts songs much more often than a band on a label does (his schedule seems to be one EP every six months or so).

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#20

Post by chwahoo »

smackfu wrote: post #10
yan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, I think what Louis is doing is amazing and am a huge fan. Having said that however, how many other comedians can pull this off? He has a very large, very dedicated audience. Likewise for music. Trent Reznor can pull off very successful self-productions, but he's also Trent Reznor. The question is, how can you make this model scale down to lesser-known acts?

In books, the answer is to sell eBooks priced at impulse levels, then sell thousands or millions of copies. For instance, the #5 seller on the Kindle is a $1 book: http://www.amazon.com/Wife-by-Wednesday-ebook/dp/B005SJLB24/...

This only scales so far. Once more books are priced at impulse levels, it will provide less of an advantage and ultimately hurt your bottom line compared to the current typical price level.

It's similar to web apps being "free" in order to attract eyes/users. I think competing on other fronts (quality, connection with users/readers, obsession with consumer satisfaction) are preferable to cutting price because it's "too easy" to compete on price

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