Interesting note in the terms of service ( http://azizansari.com/tos ) Linking to our site "You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you." That rules out 90% of social media..
Including this thread. Oh my.
Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
101–110 of 144 posts
Re: Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
#102Louis CK did it first, but I'm glad Aziz followed!
Re: Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
The odds of being rejected from Amazon's Kindle store are fairly slim. Your writing can be pretty bad; the important thing is that it's not someone else's material.
You have not paid attention to what Amazon has done. There was one furious weekend a year or so ago involving books with homosexuality in them. And Amazon recently delisted a bunch of books for content it didn't like in the Romance genre. Amazon does have a mention of "content guidelines" in their submission TOS. But good luck getting anything specific about what those "guidelines" are.
Actually, I have a business that helps people format and convert their books for Amazon, LiberWriter.com.
And, while a lot of people write pretty good books, there is also material that is ... uh... not so great. And it gets in without problems.
So, yes, Amazon certainly has the power to keep books out, but so far really hasn't utilized it nearly as much as they could.
Re: Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
#104Is anyone here already working on an easy to customize template for these guys to build websites that easily charge for DRM-less shows? I remember last time someone linked to something similar, but they had DRM and draconian payment methods (no paypal etc).
Note the site is powered by VHX.tv so I think they might have beat you to the punch here.
If memory serves me well that team is ex-Boxee.
Re: Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm also guessing that someone offended by the profanity would likely not be a happy customer. Which highlights an interesting potential limit of A/B testing for conversions. It may take some time after the point of sale to determine whether you've created a happy (and therefor loyal, returning) customer or not. So imagine in this case that profanity is likely to turn away 2 customers but presence of profanity will t…
This is something about A/B tests that always bothers me. They always seem to assume that if variation A is best for a proxy stat (signups, views, etc) it's also best for what I'm really interested in (longterm value). I still use them though - not sure there's much you can do about it anyways.
On the other hand, if you can eventually measure long-term value and you can keep track of users over a long enough cycle, then you can eventually run an A/B test on long term value. This depends on accurately tracking users, having a quantifiable way to calculate long-term value, and eliminating other sources of error, but it should be absolutely doable.
You can also measure how well your proxy stat does correspond to long-term value and adjust your expectations accordingly.
Re: Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
#106It's interesting to compare the economics of comedy vs music. I'm much more likely to enjoy a song the second, third and fourth time I hear it. I might enjoy the second time hearing a joke, but it goes downhill pretty fast after that. I'm guessing this is normal.
If a comedian's routine is recorded and widely disseminated, a lot of people might become fans and want to see him/her, but they're probably not going to want to see the same jokes again. The comedian will need to come up with new material.
Writing and perfecting a good comedy bit might be comparable in time and effort to writing and perfecting a good song. Anyone know?
How do these considerations affect which business model works best for different types of artists online?
Re: Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
#107Why are people not realising he's doing this as a gesture against DRM as oppose to some kind of business statement. .. he's a comedian.
Re: Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did stand-up comedy for a while. Allow me to offer my own experience about the entrepreneurial streak you're seeing from the comedy sector: 1. As a comedian, you have no choice BUT to get creative. Nobody is going to give you stage time as a no-name comic so your choices are either (booked) open mics or starting your own show. 2. There isn't an "agent" culture for comics like there is for bands or actors. You write…
"The money stinks as a comic" A classic case of oversupply perhaps. Far too people quitting their day jobs to do stand-up full-time because someone in the office laughed at their jokes.
Disagree completely -- the world has plenty of office workers scared to try something so bold, we need better filtering tools and more people trying rather than believing that the current system works to capture, foster, and utilize talent properly.
I think we do way too much stifling as a society as it is, and a lot of that has to do with people who gave up on their dreams for a safe existence justifying their decision by ridiculing others who dare to take risks.
Re: Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
#109It's interesting to compare the economics of comedy vs music. I'm much more likely to enjoy a song the second, third and fourth time I hear it. I might enjoy the second time hearing a joke, but it goes downhill pretty fast after that. I'm guessing this is normal. If a comedian's routine is recorded and widely disseminated, a lot of people might become fans and want to see him/her, but they're probably not going to wa…
Pretty sure this is mostly why DVD's come out at the end of tours or during the middle of a new tour to stop that exact thing happening, they might do a couple of the old gags but mostly it will be fresh material (unless your Peter Kay)
Re: Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>>redirected to PayPal Which allowed you to buy it -- for now . See, there's a weak link in that chain. Just two weeks ago there was a huge uproar over PayPal rejecting payments for books they unilaterally and unjustifiably deemed "offensive." And they can do that to any comedian too.
So can any payment processor, direct or third party. Right up to the top, with Visa and MasterCard declining to process for Wikileaks. Your point?
i think the point is that paypal is much more likely to cut you off (or even run away with your money) than visa or mastercard is.