How Louis CK Is Spending That Money

Bladestorm said:
The private sector does not force people at gunpoint to turn over a large part of their property.
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Only as a technicality, as a true 'private sector' is rare these days in any large corporation--much more government sponsored enterprise.
 
He has an LLC which finances Louie. FX pays the LLC, which bought the filming equipment and pays personnel, and Louis has access to the "profit" but is interested in financing a movie. $200,000 was given to him for the first episode of Louie, so at that rate $1M is not that unusual.

So actually he can use corporate accounting and tax avoidance, along with the donations. And since he isn't trying to pay himself millions, opting to make content for us to enjoy, he is creating jobs!
 
hierovision said:
Best $5 I've ever spent. Definitely edged out all the humble bundles I've purchased lol. I hope he starts a trend and encourages other comedians to do this... I would buy a LOT more comedy specials like this instead of waiting for them to come out on Netflix.
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Yeah you can't put a price of laughter. The Ricky Gervais podcasts are some of the funniest stuff I've ever heard, and each "season" was only about $5. Money well spent. :)
 
We shouldn't forget that he stated at the start of the whole thing that this was an experiment to see if he could make money without all the big agency / middleman / DRM shit that comes with it.

He then took the result of that experiment and instead of just shoving all that cold hard cash into his own pocket, he redistributed it as he saw fit (and admirably in my opinion).

How he made the rest of his money or what he did with it is completely irrelevant to this experiment and this discussion. In this instance, he did a remarkable thing eliminating the middle man, and then finished his outstanding experiment by doing a remarkable thing with the money - giving most of it away.

Anyone who can't support that is a cynic or pessimist in my opinion.
 
I'm really happy for Louie, he's a great guy and he's smart. He doesn't just tell jokes, he likes shooting and editing video so he did all the editing and planning himself. He sold it this way to cut out companies like Ticketmaster who take a big chunk of ticket sales, have Ticketmaster-only venues, etc. which just drive up ticket prices without giving the comedian more money.

Louis was on O&A a while back talking about all this ahead of time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkDcbEdvzfI

Awesome job!
 
I love hearing people who have no idea about how taxes work, comment about "tax the rich". First off he is a corporation and as a corp. he is only taxed on what he doesn't spend (I am simplifying). So, based on his break down, he will only get taxed on the 220K that he pulled out for himself, everything else is an expense. He will pay some kind of salary tax on the bonuses but that falls into the amount he set aside for bonuses. If he were to reinvest any of that 220K into another project or investment he will either not be taxed or be taxed at a reduced rate. Most people who make that much money have a CPA who will help them reduce their effective tax rate down to 20% or so. The 33% tax rate only effects the poor bastards who only make $379,150 (the minimum gross for 35%) and spend all $246447.50 on their expenses (which isn't even true because it is a progressive tax some they are only taxed 10% on the first 8500, 15% on the next 34,500 and so on.)

As someone whose business makes over $1 million a year I can tell you that I have never payed 30% or more in taxes. I reinvest most of my money and live off a normal income. There are hundreds of ways for me to reduce my taxable income, far more than for people who live off of a salary. So when I hear people talking about taxing the rich, I just roll my eyes because the rich don't pay those taxes unless they are stupid or trying to live like a baller and spending all their money.
 
Don't forget that he has multiple avenues to sell the content down the road for profit and royalties. Something that makes most record execs and producers seethe at the mouth.

It's a great model for drm free and open entertainment.
 
It costs $250k to produce that 1-hr. video and to build a website?! :eek:

He made $220k (and counting) for an hour's worth of work. Not too shabby. :cool:

So who else BT'd his show? :eek: :p
 
beowulf7 said:
It costs $250k to produce that 1-hr. video and to build a website?! :eek:

He made $220k (and counting) for an hour's worth of work. Not too shabby. :cool:

So who else BT'd his show? :eek: :p
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Even if you DID BT his show, there's no reason to. He allowed everyone that bought it to download it 3 times.

I gave one to my gf and used 1, I still have a 3rd download. So, you might consider it stealing, he doesn't. He considered it part of doing business, and because of that, he made himself and a lot of other hard working people, some nice money.

He proved a good point in the process of doing so. Sell it at a reasonable price and people WILL buy it. Had he asked $50 for the same video nobody would have bought it, but a ticket to a local comedy show is about $12, he, being a top tier comic would get $30 a seat, but still the point is, he filled an arena of people virtually, while selling tickets physically and cleaning house on both ends.

He wins the game of economics that the RIAA and MPAA fail at.
 
beowulf7 said:
It costs $250k to produce that 1-hr. video and to build a website?! :eek:

He made $220k (and counting) for an hour's worth of work. Not too shabby. :cool:
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Uh....yeah. Writing, promoting, recording, producing and editing a show like that is easy as hell, it clearly only took him an hour. Also bandwidth for tens of thousands of downloads, and servers to handle the traffic are free too. It was definitely $250K for only an hour or so of work.....
 
I saw him rep and talk about the show last few weeks on late night shows... he is one of the best. I have the first season of his show on FX channel (The show is called: Louie) --- hell of a good time waster for a plane ride or something. GREAT show.

Besides Breaking Bad, Louie is one of the favs of mine for a TV show (I dont like very many, but those 2 are grade A)
 
stiltner said:
Even if you DID BT his show, there's no reason to. He allowed everyone that bought it to download it 3 times.

I gave one to my gf and used 1, I still have a 3rd download. So, you might consider it stealing, he doesn't. He considered it part of doing business, and because of that, he made himself and a lot of other hard working people, some nice money.

He proved a good point in the process of doing so. Sell it at a reasonable price and people WILL buy it. Had he asked $50 for the same video nobody would have bought it, but a ticket to a local comedy show is about $12, he, being a top tier comic would get $30 a seat, but still the point is, he filled an arena of people virtually, while selling tickets physically and cleaning house on both ends.

He wins the game of economics that the RIAA and MPAA fail at.
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Cool, so you can send the link to 2 other people, in a way, gifting them the performance. Yeah, I like how he got rid of the middlemen and hopefully this will set an example for other artists, musicians, performers, comedians, etc. to shun the RIAA and MPAA.

I'm thinking of watching Lewis Black when he comes to town next month but ticket prices are a bit higher than what you mentioned, ranging from $40 to $75. IMO Lewis Black is one of the funniest comedians out there.

Oldie said:
Uh....yeah. Writing, promoting, recording, producing and editing a show like that is easy as hell, it clearly only took him an hour. Also bandwidth for tens of thousands of downloads, and servers to handle the traffic are free too. It was definitely $250K for only an hour or so of work.....
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BW is relatively cheap. 200k downloads times 1.1 GB is 220 TB of BW. That doesn't seem that bad, not sure how much that would cost, but I'm sure it's much less than, say, Steam's servers. Even if, like the previous person said that up to 3 downloads are allowed per purchase, that's 660 TB. I'm not saying that's cheap, but that can't be anywhere near $250k. And as far as producing the show, how much different was his performance compared to his previous performance? Does he change it up a lot? From what I understand, comedians don't make wholesale changes between acts.

The real question is how much would he have made if he went the traditional "sell the DVDs on Amazon" route. :confused:
 
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