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

Post by corin_ » Thu, Feb 16, 2012, 6:37 AM UTC

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #58

corin_ wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

His point is that if he was doing it right, he would have announced it and launched it at the same time. He blew his biggest moment to capitalize on this idea. \

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Feb 16, 2012, 9:31 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #59

dasil003 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, I can't just let people keep repeating this. $30k for a promo of this magnitude is not absurd in the least. This thing blew up huge, and it went off huge without a hiccup. If you just hire some low-ball bidder who knows how to slap together some APIs what guarantee do you have that it won't crash and burn under load? If that happens in seed-stage startup, oh boohoo, you disappointed your 100 early adopter frien…

I'm not really arguing about whether $30k was too much or too little. That's beside the point. The point is that it shouldn't cost every comedian who wants to follow Louis CK's lead $30k to setup their own site. It would be a total waste of time and money, not to mention limit the number of people capable of emulating him. Think about why Shopify, Weebly, Blogger, Wordpress exist. Every person who wanted an online st…

Post by dasil003 » Thu, Feb 16, 2012, 10:50 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #59

dasil003 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, I can't just let people keep repeating this. $30k for a promo of this magnitude is not absurd in the least. This thing blew up huge, and it went off huge without a hiccup. If you just hire some low-ball bidder who knows how to slap together some APIs what guarantee do you have that it won't crash and burn under load? If that happens in seed-stage startup, oh boohoo, you disappointed your 100 early adopter frien…

I'm not really arguing about whether $30k was too much or too little. That's beside the point. The point is that it shouldn't cost every comedian who wants to follow Louis CK's lead $30k to setup their own site. It would be a total waste of time and money, not to mention limit the number of people capable of emulating him. Think about why Shopify, Weebly, Blogger, Wordpress exist. Every person who wanted an online st…

Post by pessimizer » Thu, Feb 16, 2012, 1:04 PM UTC

dasil003 wrote: post #64

dasil003 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said anything about "his break"? What he did on the Internet was certainly more novel than his previous stuff which has been by countless other people. Again, the "importance" of that is up to Louis to decide, but it's not as obviously ridiculous an assertion as you seem to think.

I'm saddened by the downvotes without any type of on-point rebuttal. Guys there have been thousands and thousands of CK-level entertainers over a hundred years, but how many have done anything resembling this recent special?

Post by jerfelix » Thu, Feb 16, 2012, 2:01 PM UTC

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…