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Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

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Re: Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

#21

Post by streptomycin »

nchlswu wrote: post #8

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?

> When music artists did this, didn't their popularity have a significant part of their success?

Yep. Nine Inch Nails was very successful. Saul Williams' Reznor-produced album, released through the same mechanism and heavily promoted to Nine Inch Nails fans (advantages that wouldn't be available to most) didn't sell very well.

Re: Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

#22

Post by cemerick »

Once 50 performers do similar things, a company or two will start up offering production and marketing assistance to "self-publishing" artists, in exchange for a cut of sales. And, the old system will be reborn, much leaner, more effective and efficient for all involved, and artists can go back to doing what they love instead of dicking around with final cut for hours.

Re: Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

#23

Post by corin_ »

mrmaddog wrote: post #12

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…

That's exactly the reason you want people to be doing it for. It's all very well understanding why consumers want better options, but it has to make sense for both sides, the artists need it to be a viable way to make money.

Re: Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

#24

Post by frogtown »

mrmaddog wrote: post #12

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 think the thing that you are missing here is that if a comedian of his success was to go through the normal channels, he would be able to negotiate a large upfront payout (a la HBO or comedy central). So the $0 amount Jim Gaffigan is concerned about here is releasing something that he has worked hard on and making significantly less than he would otherwise. The less well known artist would likely be overjoyed at the 1 000 000 x $0 model of exposure since that artist would not likely be able to negotiated much upfront or have much say in the editing of his act anyhow.

Still, I agree that Jim Gaffigan is presenting the copyright argument in a very un-savvy way. Louis C.K. seemed to get it.

Re: Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

#25

Post by dpcan »

mrmaddog wrote: post #12

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…

As a consumer and Jim Gaffigan fan, all I'm thinking is this is great. $5 and I get his next album and he gets all the loot - except for the small amount he's donating.

I'm not sure what you are saying my hidden reason as a consumer is for wanting $5 drm free stuff. Is it something more?

I think a better approach would have been him coming out and saying he's going to subscribe to Louis C.K.'s new business model because it just makes sense to consumers, and it makes sense financially to him, and he's ALL IN.

Re: Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

#26

Post by dpcan »

cemerick wrote: post #22

Once 50 performers do similar things, a company or two will start up offering production and marketing assistance to "self-publishing" artists, in exchange for a cut of sales. And, the old system will be reborn, much leaner, more effective and efficient for all involved, and artists can go back to doing what they love instead of dicking around with final cut for hours.

Wasn't that where Odeo was going before the founders abandoned it and went with Twitter?

Re: Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

#27

Post by thematt »

hodder wrote: post #16
nchlswu wrote: post #8

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?

Jim Gaffigan is hilarious.

Yeah. Gotta watch him, if only for the skit about hot...pockets.

Re: Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

#30

Post by vibrunazo »

sp332 wrote: post #4

While I'm glad to see this, I still think he's missing the point. The part where he asks people not to steal his stuff is unnecessary. Of course this will be passed around by friends and pirated on P2P networks. But: the pirates don't count, his customers do. If there's one pirate, how much money do you make? $0. It there are 1,000,000 pirates, how much? Still $0. So don't sweat the pirates. This new system is good b…

Well, Paulo Coelho pirated his own books to increase revenue. So I would guess that 1,000,000 pirates could mean significantly more than $0.

"the physical sales of my books are growing since my readers post them in P2P sites." http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2012/01/28/promo-bay/

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