+ Louis C.K. Went Out On A Limb, And It Actually Worked
Sure, stand-up comedian Louis C.K. couldn’t stop the pirates, but the pirates also couldn’t stop him from making $500,000 with his $5 direct download experiment.
When Mr. C.K. announced earlier this week that he was going to sell $5 direct downloads of his of his show “Live at the Beacon Theater” without the help of a 3rd party distributor and without copyright or digital rights management (DRM) protection, he was taking risks. To abate the threat of piracy, Louis plead his case in a letter to the masses.
The Good News: thousands of people paid. In a statement yesterday, Louis revealed some of the numbers. Sales of “Live at the Beacon Theater” covered production costs, and netted Louis about $200K in profits. Not a bad outcome. Maybe there is some good left in the world after all.
The Bad News: the file did inevitably make its way to bit torrent sites. This uploader at least seemed to feel bad about doing it, however.
The Takeaway: Consumers want content cheap that is easy to get. Independent direct-to-fan releases take “the man” out of the equation, and without “the man” who’s left for pirates to stick it to? Louis? No need, $5 is cheap. But for those who do spread the file, its likely new audiences will discover Louis’ work leading to more potential sales down the line.
