Comedian Makes $200k Selling Video With No DRM

Louie is my favorite standup comedian. I bought the show the other day, it's awesome.
 
I dont really think its all that significant in the "no DRM" debate. Its more significant in showing how someone reasonably well known can make more money selling direct to the public like this, rather than through a 3rd party publisher, as he said...

"This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video."

People have done similar things in the past and been successful. Others have tried similar things and really not gotten very far.

Its more a testament to how much publishers try and rape you with high prices when a product first releases based purely on hype and the "ooo, new and shiny" mentality, with very little of it going to the artist.
 
He was the writer of Pootie Tang and is a genius in my opinion for doing so.
 
Love his stand-up, loved his show (the second season at least) and he's my favorite comedian followed by Bill Burr. Just bought a copy because I'm a huge fan of his comedy, and a huge supporter of what he's doing by avoiding the "large company" and thereby sending a message to the big guys as well as to the little guys.
 
Thuleman said:
That's one way to drum up publicity when otherwise no one has even heard of you before. Nice marketing ploy.
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Although I don't find 95% of his stuff funny, you may be living under a rock.

Louie is currently considered the best comedian of almost the past 10 years. He's generating more revenue than anybody else as well as air time. Nobody has near the CD sales or puts out more work than he does.

Believe me, people know of him even if you don't like his material.
 
Never heard of him, but I don't live in the US, so it makes sense that I won't. But I checked his stuff on YouTube and I like it, so I'll probably but that. So thanks for the mention.

I wonder what would happen if he used a Humble Bundle style pricing, where you can choose how much you'd like to pay.
 
So I watched this show, and here are a few thoughts:

- It's not as cohesive as his other shows.
- I get the feeling that this was not one of his major releases. It was just some material that he wanted out there, but not an actual "show." - notice that he hasn't even given it a title.
- He does have an upcoming show entitled "Word."

I expect that one (Word) to be more like his others (Shameless (2007), Chewed Up (2008), Hilarious (2010)), which are all very worthwhile. I would view them chronologically.

That said, this is definitely worth the $5 for fans, and/or to support the distribution model.

I think I need to re-watch it to fully evaluate, but it's a decent live set.
 
Hmm... sorry to post again, but no editing and all:

My last post implied that this show wasn't for people who were not already fans...I just wanted to emphasize that it IS a funny show, but especially so if you like his humor.

It provoked an honest succession of laughs several times.

I was trying to distinguish it from his other releases. Although it's not necessary, I do think it makes sense to view his other releases first.
 
The artist Jonathan Coultan also embraces the freedom of art. He puts his songs out there and if you want to pay for them thats great, but otherwise he's just happy that people are listening. His songs are quite clever and comedic though so I enjoy his music.

Alot of his songs have been made into WoW videos by fans. Jonathan is smart enough to realize this got him way more exposure then he ever would have gotten normally.

Code Monkey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Wy7gRGgeA

Betty And Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShPAyOoOGPw&feature=relmfu

Skullcrusher Mountain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_ryNJVreiY&

From his website
Already Stole It?
No problem. If you’d like to donate some cash, you can do so through the PayPal link in the sidebar.
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I appreciatte people like this that understand the realities of what our technology is bringing. I therefore support him.
 
Love the Louie CK. Props to him for continuing to show up on O&A even though he's a BIG STAAR now ;)
 
spaceman said:
Did someone really not know about CK and Dane? Seriously. If you are unaware, there is a big ole shitstorm about Dane "stealing" some of CKs material. Happens a lot but when Cook blew up like he did, made a lot of comedians butt hurt jealous.

CK is widely acknowledged as a very top tier stand up by other comedians. Smart guy btw. Hard, hard worker too. You have to be to do as much as he does.

Respect!
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And yet CK had Dane on his TV show and they made it into a big joke since it was an overblown issue to begin with. This isn't Carlos Mencia blatantly stealing entire bits , it was one comedian being influenced by another and the media taking control of the story and blowing it far far out of reality.

When the two comedians in question can laugh about it you really can't call it a "big ole shitstorm" anymore.

But its great to see CK doing so well , I hope him all the success as he's worked his ass off for it. Easily this generation's Carlin.
 
From Reddit:

Question Answer
How on earth were you able to gain the incredible amount of authorial control that you have over Louie? Have you had to battle with FX over any particular jokes, concepts or creative choices? link I got it by demanding it and refusing to do the show any other way at all and by having the leverage that I was completely willing to walk away without doing the show and by agreeing to an extremely low budget so that they could offset the risk of giving me this freedom because they are risking less money. I have had conversations with them about very few moments in the show but zero battles.
Do you really edit the whole thing yourself? link Yeah I do the whole thing. On season 1 I had an editor and we shared it about half. But season two I edited without any help. It was fucking hard and yes, I sit at the Macbook and just put it together from start frame to finish.
Has the $5 experiment worked? link It's worked well so far. It's far from over so I don't know everything yet. I haven't even started promoting it. I'm doing a lot of press in the next few weeks soo we'll see what impact that has if any.
Has it sold as well as you hoped and have you covered all of your expenses? link I'm not going to say yet what it's making.
Have you seen the conversation at The Pirate Bay link I think it's really interesting that I brought the price so close to stealing and made the movie so easy to get and made it so clear that it's a human offering it that it sparked a debate about pirating. To steal from someone and not feel bad, you either have to be a sociopath or view the act differently.
Would you consider trying something like this again? link I don't know yet if I'll do it again. It hasn't run it's course. But I AM SO HAPPY I DID IT. Just so fun and it has been massively gratifying to share the positive of it with so many people who have written and expressed their feelings.
Do you have plans to release a physical DVD/Blu-Ray copy? link I think I will do that, yes. But it will be totally self produced. For now, We are going to post a "cover" and DVD label that you can download and print. This will be available to everyone who has bought it, not just new buyers. I might do a DVD and an audio CD down the line.
Have your 2 girls found out about the amount you make fun of them in your stand-up? If so, how do they react to it? link That kid is very fictional. We have a pretty great community at the school.
Is the content of your comedy purely for the stage or do you continue to express the same insights and opinions in social settings as well? link I don't talk in person the way I do on stage because it's a performance and it's distilled and the language is more deliberate. I make the same kind of jokes with my friends and family for sure and i have safe relationships where I can float a crazy or wrong idea and find out where it goes just as a life exercise and some times those things end up on stage.
In general, it seems you like to learn. What are you currently learning, or what else would you like to master in the future? link Right now, I am learning to be a dad. I am learning how to take better care of myself and my kids. I'm learning how to communicate with people in my life.
What would you be doing if you weren't a professional comedian? link The last jobs I had were fixing cars and covering football games for a local access TV station. As in driving the mobile van to the field, setting up 3 cameras, teaching depressed grown-ups and interns how to use them and directing the game from the van and then wanting to kill myself.
Are parts of Louie ever improvised? If so, can you give us an example? link The poker scene in season 1 was very written but then I let the guys go off and fuck around. I used some of that. I don't generally let people improvise though. That works for shows where you have two cameras that are just sort of following the action. I shoot my show like a movie and it would be all fucked up if folks just said things.
What is a topic that you as a comedian would never touch? link There ain't one.
You've been listed as a video editor on most of your projects. What program do you use to edit and why have you decided to take on this role? link I love editing. I have used Avid in the past but I exclusively use Final Cut Pro now, though I am concerned about the future... You always have to put three dots after the future... editing is part of the process. It's how you form everything. In some ways not editing yourself would be like a sculptor dropping some clay off at a guys house and saying "Make a naked lady chasing a bull. and do it nice."
What was your least favorite memory? link Probably pissing my pants at school, everyone pointing at the giant stain in the front of my pants and laughing. I mean EVERYONE. Jimmy Carter, Liza Minelli, Butros Butros Gali, the pope before he was pope AND the kids he fucked. They all laughed at me. then I had to walk home in the cold with pissed on pants and legs and I had red rashes all over the front of my lower body when I got home. The bath I took, though? mmmmm. that was good. I pissed in there too.
If you were starting comedy as a young stand-up today what would you do differently? link Some things don't change. You need to get on stage as much as possible and vary your stage experience as much as possible and not quit and take care of yourself and always question why you say the things you say and enjoy yourself. The context of history and technology just is what it is.
How much more or less freedom do you have with your writing now that you are famous compared to when you were an unknown? link I still have the same freedom because i don't care, when I'm writing, that I"m famous. It doesn't help or hurt
How many black T-shirts do you own? link I have oh my god so many black T-shirts.
I relate so much to the character you play in Louie - how much of that is you? link well it's me with poor judgement and worse luck.
You are often quoted on this website on the Atheism page, how do you feel about that? link I'm not an atheist. I think god is there and that he is watching and he made us. I just don't give a shit ... Well I don't "Believe in God" I have zero idea how everything got here. I would personally say that, if I had to make a list of possibles, God would be pretty far down. But if I were to make a list of people that know what the fuck they are talking about, I would be REALLY far down.
Who were your biggest comedic influences growing up and why? link Bill Cosby, George Carlin, Steve Martin. The rest is a long answer. they made me want to be a comedian.
Do you think you'll be on stage till the day you die (a la Carlin), or have you imagined other paths for yourself? link Well I hope I'm on stage for the rest of my life ala George Burns instead of Carlin. But yeah I'll never stop doing stand-up. Even if it's in little clubs. The rest of it, I'll take what I can get.
 
wiseoracle said:
*snip*
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Lol i bought it, Im not a huge fan but for $5 it was worth it! This guy is on to something for sure.
 
wiseoracle said:
To setup and handle the demand? The bandwidth delivery. The amount of coding to get it functioning correctly.

It may sound like a lot, but it's just like if you were developing a program from the ground up. What requirements and how. You have to pay someone to do it correctly.
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There's no reason to develop a program from the ground up when it comes to shopping carts and paypal extensions especially if you're trying to be secure about things. There's a reason that a majority of well known sites go with prepackaged software. The cost of bandwidth is nill as it's included in a good hosting provider. You can rent a dedicated server that is mirrored on both coasts for about $100-$200/mo. I doubt you'd need that though and even then, you wouldn't need for more than a year.

I've been doing sites for about 14 years now for profit (.. I just felt old). Sites just like that. I can't see the cost being $32k. I'd say he got taken, hard. But as is true in this life, if you do one thing to get a rat out of your house (entertainment executives), you may just have another one step in their place (web designer taking advantage of the ill-informed). A lot of web designers charge based off what the net worth of their client is, which I find unethical.

Just sayin'. Just chalk it up to the same people that charged Gingrich $800k for what was basically a $20 template.
 
For those of you that are saying a big company would have paid him more remember a few things. He didn't have to sign away his rights to the video. He still owns it and is free to do whatever he wants. The other thing is the video has only been out for a few days. Any future sales will continue to net him a profit. In the long run this could be more profitable than just selling the rights to some company. He has also reinforced the connection he has with his fanbase and likely made new fans with all of the interest this experiment is generating.
 
I know what I'll be watching tonight.

Be nice if there was more stuff out there like this.
 
Just wanted to share this video. Relevant to digital downloads only.

What artists need is a service where they can sell music privately, without having to sell out to distributors.
 
Cool concept, horrible comedian.

Glad that worked out for him. $170,000 dollars using 5 cameras was the cost to produce that video? Yikes. I am shocked. Sounds like he did most of the editing himself which no doubt saved him a lot of money as well.

If you will notice, a good comedian will spot the all too obvious differences between men and women, or life in general, the work place, kids, grand parents, sex, race, etc and they are then able to articulate it into a joke. Something most of us cannot do. They do this with body lingo and gestures, making faces, funny voices and their choice of wit, intellect and words to deliver their jokes.

On that scale, this guy is slow and behind the curve. Could I do what he does. No, never. But being someone that loves comedy, I can spot the weak and wounded. I knew the name but it wasn't something that caught my eye. I went and brushed up on him and while he got me to laugh, it wasn't very often. Anyways.

Had this been Patrice or Dave, in a heart beat.
 
I didn't read this whole thread, but I want to say that Louie C.K. is one of the funniest guys I have ever seen. His show sucks (as did his old show on HBO) but his stand-up acts are some of the funniest I've ever seen. When he's close I always make sure to get tickets to see him live.

Trust me, for 5 bucks this is well worth the cost and I'll guarantee you'll want to watch his other stand-up specials after seeing it.
 
Where is the damn edit button?!

I just wanted to add that I'm a middle-aged guy with kids and a family, so a lot of his comedy hits close to home. It may not be relevant for other people but he's still a very funny guy.
 
Actually this shows that the middle man is still needed for most people, for example to make the money he is now he needed to invest a quarter million dollars, which your average comedian/band/singer who is just starting out wont be able to do.

Also he was starting out with name recognition and a following.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
Actually this shows that the middle man is still needed for most people, for example to make the money he is now he needed to invest a quarter million dollars, which your average comedian/band/singer who is just starting out wont be able to do.

Also he was starting out with name recognition and a following.
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Maybe to do what he did at the scale he did, sure, it would be impossible for a broke up-and-comer.

That doesn't mean that they can't home-produce audio or video of their material and use the tool that is the internet to distribute it.

They won't be raking in $200k profit in less than a week, but they can probably break even if they're smart and work hard, and get the bonus of broader exposure. Best case, they start a snowball effect. Worst case nothing comes of it, but open mic night at a comedy club and a friend with a camera costs a lot less than organizing shows at the Beacon Theater and professional videography.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
Actually this shows that the middle man is still needed for most people, for example to make the money he is now he needed to invest a quarter million dollars, which your average comedian/band/singer who is just starting out wont be able to do.

Also he was starting out with name recognition and a following.
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He didn't invest anything, he said he used ticket sales money to pay for it.
 
godmachine "Easily this generation's Carlin."

Jesus H Christ .... here we go again. Listen, stop. Please. In the grand scheme of things, this guy is so-so and maybe even not that. Yes, you have a voice here on HardOCP, yes you have our attention, but do you honestly want the one time you stand up here at the HardOCP virtual campefire, that you're remembered for saying something stupid?

Don't you dare compare him to Carlin. What you said there is one hell of a sin. I couldn't tell you how, but you've sinned against something. And not just any sin. I would watch your back if I were you. Something horrible is bound to happen to you now. Things like, frozen waste falling from the sky and hitting you, someone who just won the lottery running you over with his car out of excitement, falling into a sinkhole that leads to a giant deposit of excrement under your city streets. Something bad along those lines.

And while you're at it, you should also just go ahead and compare Justin Bieber to the Beatles.
 
Louis CK is my favourite comedian. Gotta support him if you are thinking of buying this. Just buy it.

Dane Cook can go suck a bag of dicks.
 
SixFootDuo said:
$170,000 dollars using 5 cameras was the cost to produce that video? Yikes. I am shocked.

But being someone that loves comedy, I can spot the weak and wounded.
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Really? That's shocking? You must not have any experience whatsoever with this sort of work then. You think he recruited 5 homeless guys to hold the cameras he bought at Best Buy?

I've ran into a lot of "expert" critics in my day with my theatre work. ...some were even highly educated (in some completely opposite field), but considered themselves experts in everything because they've seen a show or two. Your opinion is exactly that. It's not even a proper analysis. I hope you know that most recognized film critics are in the position to critique the work because of their extensive study of the field. (Similar to how [H]ard|OCP analyzes products for their reviews because the guys here know their stuff!)

Comedy is especially difficult because each audience is different. I've been fortunate enough to work with some top rated performers in my semi-recent past (before returning to formal education). Even the most notable performers sometimes have a rough night because they can't find the group rhythm of the audience. ...which is also why sometimes filmed (comedic) material isn't as entertaining: huge disconnect between live audience and some guy sitting in his underwear in front of the TV thinking he's an expert on American comedy and comedic theory. An amature tries to be funny, a professional heightens a funny experience (using subtle cues the audience gives off).

Anyways, that said, Louis CK is a genius. He definitely deserves everything he's earned.
 
SixFootDuo said:
godmachine "Easily this generation's Carlin."

Jesus H Christ .... here we go again. Listen, stop. Please. In the grand scheme of things, this guy is so-so and maybe even not that. Yes, you have a voice here on HardOCP, yes you have our attention, but do you honestly want the one time you stand up here at the HardOCP virtual campefire, that you're remembered for saying something stupid?

Don't you dare compare him to Carlin. What you said there is one hell of a sin. I couldn't tell you how, but you've sinned against something. And not just any sin. I would watch your back if I were you. Something horrible is bound to happen to you now. Things like, frozen waste falling from the sky and hitting you, someone who just won the lottery running you over with his car out of excitement, falling into a sinkhole that leads to a giant deposit of excrement under your city streets. Something bad along those lines.

And while you're at it, you should also just go ahead and compare Justin Bieber to the Beatles.
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Woah there dude...

In a way, he's right. I find Louis CK funny. Not Carlin funny, but funny.

What does make him probably the best candidate (if there is one) for this generation's Carlin is his unwillingness to relinquish creative control or kowtow to what others want. He does what he wants, on his own terms, or he leaves. That's a very Carlin-esque attitude, and I don't think it's as well embodied by any other successful/famous/"mainstream" comedians who are currently in the limelight.

And for all we all like Carlin, he wouldn't be what he was without people like Lenny Bruce. Louis CK wouldn't be what he is without Carlin, and some future comedian won't be what he or she is without Louis CK. There needs to be a comedian like that each generation, and it's not a bad thing.

So yeah, chill it with the "zomg you have shamed the master" BS.
 
Not like he's using crappy cameras. He mentioned that he bought one of those RED cameras, that cost a good fortune.
 
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