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

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

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 140 posts

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

#31

Post by tptacek »

funkah wrote: post #27

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that he is definitely not rich from comedy, but I somehow figured he had made enough to own a home outright at least. FTA: "And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thin…

I've seen him live a couple times, and he's gotten up on stage and joked about how much more money he has than everyone in the entire room. I don't think he's hurting.

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

#32

Post by redthrowaway »

untog wrote: post #9
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.

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. People said the same when Radiohead self-released their album. But the problem is that both Radiohead and Louis CK have benefited from EMI and Comedy Central boosting their profile for years. A new artist can't release their own work and ac…

>A new artist can't release their own work and achieve these levels of success.

No, but they've never been able to. They've always had to grind it out making no money in open mic nights, or starting for another artist "for the exposure". Between Youtube and the ease of self-distribution, it is now possible for artists to bypass the studio distribution deals that take such a large cut and result in higher prices for consumers and fans.

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

#33

Post by Ryanmf »

yan wrote: post #23
Ryanmf wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I hate this argument too, so it's a good thing no one in this thread is making it. The conversation here is about discovering talented acts who would have been popular in a classic promotion environment but need the initial audience.

who would have been popular in a classic promotion environment

wat

Because the time and energy of the world's hackers is best spent on cargo cult business models attempting to mimic successes of yore?

How about developing tools to facilitate discovery of talented acts who will be popular in the current, real world environment where there's an internet, and people use it to find and distribute things?

To borrow a metaphor from Brian Eno, if recorded music (or any other duplicated and widely distributed art) is whale blubber, and we've reached the point of oil refinement, in what universe is the optimum response a sharper harpoon?

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

#34

Post by noodle »

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?

> Having said that however, how many other comedians can pull this off?

Quite a few, really. The golden example I think is Jimmy Pardo's podcast, which has been turning a tidy profit for a while now. He was pretty niche-y and not nationally known, unlike Louis, but has still created a successful business on comedy, self-production and self-distribution.

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

#35

Post by ramy_d »

tptacek wrote: post #31
funkah wrote: post #27

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that he is definitely not rich from comedy, but I somehow figured he had made enough to own a home outright at least. FTA: "And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thin…

I've seen him live a couple times, and he's gotten up on stage and joked about how much more money he has than everyone in the entire room. I don't think he's hurting.

he's also done the opposite the "I don't even have 'no money'" routine.

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

#36

Post by RyanMcGreal »

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?

You start by spending years on the club circuit, developing your material, honing your craft, and building an audience by releasing content that your fans can share. In the short term, you make money from performing. In the longer term, you reach a point where you can make money from selling recordings.

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

#37

Post by [deleted] »

scythe wrote: post #26
yan wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re: DRM, I wouldn't call it a factual error. The article didn't imply that it's not possible, it just said it was harder. And I'd argue stripping DRM (no matter how easy it is) is, is in fact harder than not bothering. re: Popularity, I thought so too, until I had to wait on a long, long line to see him in Caroline's over two years ago. I was lucky enough to snag tickets to the Beacon theater show (that he's selling…

>And I'd argue stripping DRM (no matter how easy it is) is, is in fact harder than not bothering. But it's never, ever, necessary, not when gazillions of scene groups strip DRM from a work and upload it as soon as it hits the market, if not before; sometimes they just get hold of the studio version. It might make some obscure video games harder to pirate, since it's much harder to strip DRM from code than from data,…

[deleted]

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

#38

Post by ColdSnickersBar »

scythe wrote: post #26
yan wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re: DRM, I wouldn't call it a factual error. The article didn't imply that it's not possible, it just said it was harder. And I'd argue stripping DRM (no matter how easy it is) is, is in fact harder than not bothering. re: Popularity, I thought so too, until I had to wait on a long, long line to see him in Caroline's over two years ago. I was lucky enough to snag tickets to the Beacon theater show (that he's selling…

>And I'd argue stripping DRM (no matter how easy it is) is, is in fact harder than not bothering. But it's never, ever, necessary, not when gazillions of scene groups strip DRM from a work and upload it as soon as it hits the market, if not before; sometimes they just get hold of the studio version. It might make some obscure video games harder to pirate, since it's much harder to strip DRM from code than from data,…

You're not most people. I don't think you fully realize just how 'not-geeky' everyone else is. Almost every single internet user does NOT know how to torrent something at all. A lot of the people who are going to watch his performance would, basically, stop at trying to email a video to someone or copy it right to a DVD. If they can't do that, then they don't bother trying to distribute illegally at all.

Having a DRM-free version basically means that the grandmas and middleschoolers and casual internet users of the world (almost everyone) are going to inevitably "pirate" it when they simply put it on a DVD or email it to a friend.

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

#39

Post by ColdSnickersBar »

pyre wrote: post #15
chwahoo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Non-technical users are almost every single user in the world. So, if DRM prevents just those people from being able to simply email a video to a friend, then it actually is preventing most "pirating".

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

#40

Post by ColdSnickersBar »

scythe wrote: post #30
chwahoo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

>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 strip the DRM or find a non-DRM'd version elsewhere. For non-technical users, it might actually be "hard" to pirate DRM'd content. If by piracy you mean the kind of content sharing that everyone has been participating in since the 1…

>nobody wants to ban.

Except for the industries. They absolutely do want to ban this kind. Almost every single person on the internet is non-technical and doesn't even know how to torrent. If DRM prevents them from emailing a friend a copy, then DRM is doing exactly what the inventors want it to. That's the largest market share.

Also, emailing a song or video to a friend is far easier than handing a person a DVD, CD, or even a casette tape used to be. The old kind of sharing was tolerated because it still used to be easier to go buy an album than to get a copy. Today, that's not the case.

Post reply on HN