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The comedy stylings of Louis C.K. isn't for everyone. For example, monks probably won't appreciate his vulgar language, and those British Royal Guards in England hardly laugh at anything. Screw them both, because not only is the guy hilarious (check him out on YouTube when you're not at work or around children), but he proved you can make a handsome profit on digital downloads without applying the shackles of DRM.
"People of Earth (minus the ones who don't give a shit about this): it's been amazing to conduct this experiment with you. The experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money can be made by an individual in this manner?," Louis C.K. wrote on his website.
After just four days Louis reports he's sold over 110,000 copies for more than half a million dollars. He sold 50,000 copies and collected $250,000 in the first 12 hours alone, at which point he had already broke even on the cost of production and website.
"Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). 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," Louis C.K. explains. "They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again."
He's preaching to choir as far as we're concerned, though he hardly needs to say anything. Making a $200,000 profit in just four days on a $5 download speaks a louder message than his lengthy blog post.
If you have a sense of humor, aren't offended by vulgar language, and want to flip the finger at DRM, you can purchase his video here.
Comments are closed on this article
Free_Wheely
December 19, 2011 at 3:56am
I'm just surprised it took as much as $250,000 to break even, like what the hell?
lhatten
December 15, 2011 at 10:47am
I love this. I have been preaching this to people for years. Some of you older folk may remember Turbo Pascal. In the day, most if not all, programming language software cost $400 or more with heavy copy protection (the DRM of the day). Along comes Philippe Kahn of Borland and sells Turbo Pascal for $49.95 and the only copy protection was the manual was a paperback. That made copying it a bitch. Borland sold a ton of them, and the rest of the industry had to come out with equivalent products.
Wingzero_x
December 15, 2011 at 8:32am
Really though there is not enough data in the results to see if itmakes a difference, because all it tells is that he made X amount of money for the downloads. Other factors to consider:
Number copied and given away to friends etc (lost revenue)
Expected sales (Revenue)
How many times is it seeded in the Torrents, and how many people are downloading it.
Even though I do believe most people are more than willing to purchase their media legetimately and with Apple, Amazon, Google and others providing services that protect peoples investments it will only get better.
Gezzer
December 14, 2011 at 8:50pm
I've seen CK once and the man is funny.
But like many truly funny people he's also really smart.
I've posted before about how the internet makes the "gate keepers" in the entertainment world less important, and I stand by it. DRM protects those "gate keepers" more then it protects the artist, and this proves it as well.
I most likely would of never seen this special at all, but instead I'm going to buy a copy right after I post this. So I think CK will find he'll be much further ahead by the time everyone that will buy has.
stige
December 14, 2011 at 6:59pm
CK is awesome but, unfortunately, i think this is only tenable for well established artists and entertainers.
Joe Shmo trying to 'come up' or fringe artists will have their castle pillaged on this, imho.
Gezzer
December 14, 2011 at 8:38pm
I disagree.
The only problem with this model is raising above the background noise enough to be noticed. Once this happeneds anything of reasonable quality would go viral IMHO and the money would roll in (well come in).
As well "Joe Shmos" and fringe artists will actually do better in the long run with a DRM free model. Their current problem is getting someone in a production/publishing company to see the value of their work and then help publish it for a wider audience.
If you self publish you don't sign over any of your rights to a publisher so you can keep making money off of your product till you decide to remove it. As well more and more sites are devoting themselves to "self publishers" which helps raise an artist above the background noise.
Mark my words. Although I don't see the old publishing system disappearing anytime soon. I think you will find more and more quality artisits self publishing as the years go by.
Ghok
December 14, 2011 at 7:58pm
I don't know how many artists trying to start out you know, but this is pretty much the business model we use already...
As CK says, you don't make as much money this way, but if enough people like you, you can still make a lot.
vig1lant3
December 14, 2011 at 6:43pm
I've been a Louis C.K. fan for about 5 years now. I was hooked after an HBO special I saw that had me in tears of sweet, sweet laughter (and I am notoriously hard to entertain when it comes to comedy). If you don't know who Louis C.K. is, he's worth a look. Real funny dude.
Anyway, I didn't really think I could like the man any more than I already did, but I guess I was wrong. It's a nice little experiment. It proves that at least part of the piracy/DRM problem is simple corporate greed.
Personally, I think another part of the problem is the pricing of media in general. I may have only taken one year of economics in college, but it's enough to know that people won't buy things that aren't worth the price being demanded. $5 for a comedy special that will genuinely entertain me is infinitely preferable to $20 for a movie that probably sucks, lacks originality, and is likely the regurgitate of at least part of another movie that I've already seen.
So BRAVO Louie!! In honor of your success, and to celebrate the occasion, I vote that all entertainment executives should be shaved from head to toe with rusty potato peelers, and thrown into pools of isopropyl alcohol repeatedly until they promise to stop ruining the industry for the entertainers and consumers alike! Unless of course someone can suggest something that would burn worse than alcohol...totally open for suggestions with regard to that point. ;)
DoctorX
December 14, 2011 at 6:34pm
drm free for the win... the $5 was immaterial. I bought it just to support the guy and not putting the drm on it.
Scatter
December 14, 2011 at 6:11pm
I think the fact that he offered hs product for $5 had a lot more to do with the huge sales then the fact that it was DRM free. Don't get me wrong, a lot of computer savy people surely love the lack of DRM but the majority of computer owners couldn't even tell you what DRM is. A better experiment would have been to release his show DRM free but price it the same as other comparable products and then see if it still flew off the shelves.
Tenhawk
December 14, 2011 at 6:55pm
DRM was irrelevant. No DRM has ever been of any use in stopping pirates anyway, so wether it had DRM or not wasn't the point. The real experiment here was whether he could do without the mass marketing of HBO and still make an equivelent profit.
That's where the price came in. He was able to cut the cost of the executives, marketers, DRM licensing fees and basically all the chaff associated with selling your rights through the big studios. It's not over yet, either. 200k profit in a few days is just the start, in the long game the question of will he make more money this way or through HBO will be answered.
vig1lant3
December 14, 2011 at 6:49pm
Part of the problem IS the price of other comparable products, especially in this economy. It's a lot easier to sell something when the price is somewhere in the realm of the overall worth of the media, and not just an arbitrary price point set based on what said media happens to be.
Founck
December 14, 2011 at 5:44pm
and I will continue to support this business model with my wallet.
MrFluffyThing
December 14, 2011 at 5:23pm
As soon as I had seen that he released his show for $5 DRM-free, I was one of the first to go and download it. I fully support this business model, because not only did it support him directly, I also got a copy that I can do anything with.
I don't know how well this will catch on in the long run, people may just decide they don't want to pay the $5 at all and start looking for it online, but it certainly looks better than $20 and a load of crap to sift through. Just the other day when I loaded up the new X-men movie on DVD, I had to sit through 15 minutes of previews and couldn't skip them. When the disc skipped and I had to eject it to stop the disc, I had to watch the ads again. Yeah, there's another reason people pirate stuff...
warptek2010
December 14, 2011 at 11:55pm
Don't forget the mandatory FBI warning everyone on the entire planet has seen at least 220 times by now and you still cannot skip past. Imagine you are a 3 year old girl. You want to watch your Dora video. 3 year olds are notoriously impatient. Isn't this a form of child abuse?
Pball1224
December 14, 2011 at 3:29pm
I really enjoy this guy's shows AND I hate DRM, so this is such a WIN for only $5. Just bought a copy.
Hg Dragon
December 14, 2011 at 2:47pm
Kevin Smith did something similar with "Red State." Distributed it himself, took it on tour to local theaters for screenings and Q&A's, released to VOD and DVD/Blu-Ray the same day. Made back the small budget super-fast and the rest is profit.
DJ_Smoke
December 14, 2011 at 1:27pm
Man, I hope this business model catches on... 5 bucks well spent
