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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

#31

Post by vibrunazo »

TylerE wrote: post #17
jwblackwell wrote: post #2

Currently, there is a huge incentive for performers and artists to follow this route of distributing their content. It is still seen as novel and championed by fans, resulting in increased exposure that wouldn't of happened if they would of chosen a normal route for selling their products. Don't get me wrong, it's good to see this stuff happening but I think the more we see of it the less effective it will be for the…

Incentive for established comedians. Don't minimize the need to be able to front the $100k+ to do the initial filming, venue, rental, etc.

There's a bit of overhead in this price due to him trying to bandage fix an old model with some features of a new one. Instead of trying to reinvent it.

If you think about it, you can do a stand up comedy with a cheap at home or at a bar with friends. And upload it to YouTube as a private video and/or use existing platforms to sell video.

They could save a lot. They're only not doing this because they just started taking baby steps away from the existing model. Plus they don't know any better, Louis spent a fortune just to setup that simple website. He could have used existing platforms. If he doesn't know how to use those, then here's a startup opportunity.

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

#33

Post by paulhauggis »

It's interesting because it's all over the torrent networks (Louis's $5 comedy special).

It shows you that it's not about: price, protection, or availability. Many times it's just because people want it for free and are not willing to part with their hard-earned money.

I also think that most people bought this only because they wanted to prove to the world that it would work (DRM-less and cheap media).

When it becomes a popular thing to do, artists will see the reason why you need to charge a little more+have some sort of protection in the first place. DRM and other protection schemes were invented after the result of mass piracy.

The problem is that whatever the reason is, there isn't any way to stop it (without taking away too many freedoms). It's too late. So, the answer for software is to only make services (and charge a monthly fee) and other industries need to figure out ways to change their business models and use the fact that people will pirate it to their advantage.

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

#34

Post by staunch »

Louis CK paid like $30k to setup his site for streaming his special. Gaffigan will probably pay some similarly absurd amount.

What HNer is going to setup the simple solution for all the comedians that want to copy Louis CK but don't want to figure it out and spend $30k?

Transcoding + S3 + Stripe + Reporting dashboard + handholding with a flat 5%-20% fee or something.

It could even be an iTunes-like competitor. Web-based, video content, DRM-free. Enter your credit card once and you can easily buy all the different specials. Maybe the price tag would be a good angle: justfive.com, afiver.com, etc. Then again maybe they'd want it to be purely white label.

Would be cool if the next guy said: "Alright, I saw what Louis CK and Gaffigan did. I'm going to put my new special up on justfive.com"

Someone do it!

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

#35

Post by BHSPitMonkey »

mrchess wrote: post #7
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…

Steal in that context is a powerful word as it blatantly suggests he already accused all customers of being a thief of some sort. Not only that, he is trying to guilt people into buying his product with the follow up sentence, "why would you steal from a vet". He is doing it wrong.

I think you should re-read the post with the mindset that he is, after all, a comedian. Sure, this is an issue we all care about here, but there's no need to be overly serious about the tone of Jim's post. He's trying to come off as funny.

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

#37

Post by tejaswiy »

staunch wrote: post #34

Louis CK paid like $30k to setup his site for streaming his special. Gaffigan will probably pay some similarly absurd amount. What HNer is going to setup the simple solution for all the comedians that want to copy Louis CK but don't want to figure it out and spend $30k? Transcoding + S3 + Stripe + Reporting dashboard + handholding with a flat 5%-20% fee or something. It could even be an iTunes-like competitor. Web-ba…

Isn't this something that gumroad does? (https://gumroad.com/)

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

#38

Post by patio11 »

staunch wrote: post #34

Louis CK paid like $30k to setup his site for streaming his special. Gaffigan will probably pay some similarly absurd amount. What HNer is going to setup the simple solution for all the comedians that want to copy Louis CK but don't want to figure it out and spend $30k? Transcoding + S3 + Stripe + Reporting dashboard + handholding with a flat 5%-20% fee or something. It could even be an iTunes-like competitor. Web-ba…

Design: $2k, coding: $5k, convincing Louis CK to use you over everyone else in the world for the most important moment of his career to date: $23k.

And honestly, given the results, they undercharged.

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

#39

Post by jaylevitt »

AgentConundrum wrote: post #18
jlack wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But even if he is riding the coat-tails of Louis CK, isn't it still a good thing that more people are starting to provide direct content for very reasonable prices?

It is, but if Gaffigan squanders the marketing potential of this, then it will have a serious impact on how much money his special brings in. Since this is only the second time a (well known, mainstream) comedian has tried this, a failure or even just a poorer-than-expected showing could make a lot of other entertainers write Louis CK off as being a one-time thing. They'll assume he succeeded as a novelty and will be…

Then let us help him.

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

#40

Post by staunch »

patio11 wrote: post #38
staunch wrote: post #34

Louis CK paid like $30k to setup his site for streaming his special. Gaffigan will probably pay some similarly absurd amount. What HNer is going to setup the simple solution for all the comedians that want to copy Louis CK but don't want to figure it out and spend $30k? Transcoding + S3 + Stripe + Reporting dashboard + handholding with a flat 5%-20% fee or something. It could even be an iTunes-like competitor. Web-ba…

Design: $2k, coding: $5k, convincing Louis CK to use you over everyone else in the world for the most important moment of his career to date: $23k. And honestly, given the results, they undercharged.

1. "We developed this system for comedians to do exactly what Louis CK did. You pay based on usage (no large upfront capital risk), it's ready now, and here's a demo so you can see how nice it is."

VS

2. "We could totally develop this site for you. It'll probably cost around $30k and take a 6-8 weeks. Trust us."

In both cases it's going to require salesmanship but I'd feel a lot more confident about selling #1. And of course once you've had a few successful clients #1 get's even easier -- you just point to them.

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