Louis C.K.'s amazing experiment.

Louis CK released a live performance on his website on December 10th. Louis paid for the video production himself ($170,000+$32,000 for the website, etc.) and released the video exclusively on his website for $5. Yep, five measley bucks. No DRM, no control, no nothing, stream it or download a 1280x720 mpg file that can be copied, put on DVD or shared. Insane idea? Well, Louis reported on the outcome yesterday:

The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we've sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. 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. 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.

 

While Louis CK's reputation was created in a more traditional way, the experiment drives the point of killing the middle man further into the ground. Distribution of media is effectively free now. The race for eyeballs is what matters now. Distribution is dead and advertising rules. The argument has been made a million times by people with larger brains than me. This is just a great example.

Louis' site for the performance is HERE. I encourage you to cough up the five bucks. It is well worth it, AND unlike most things these days, you're not licensing the video, you own it. Also, be sure to read the entire post on his experiment HERE.

Louis was also on Fresh Air yesterday. Listen HERE.

Louis C.K. controls Louie.

The New York Magazine website has a fantastic article about Louis CK and his television show, Louie. It's one of the only TV shows which I can stand to watch.

One of the reasons the show is so good is that it is truly a singular vision. Louis CK has unprecedented control over the show and its content:

"The show is based on his life. Louis is the director. He’s also the only writer, the sole editor (he no longer shares duties with the co-editor he had last season), not to mention the person who oversees music (when the music guy’s budget ran out, he decided to do it himself). He also hired his own casting team: Last season, he turned down FX’s offer to help out and doesn’t inform them about casting in advance. But perhaps the most unusual aspect of the show is that Louis C.K. gets no notes from the network during filming, no script approval—an ­unheard-of “Louis C.K. deal” that has made him the envy of comics and TV writers alike. It’s a situation Louis is not taking for granted.

'No one on the planet Earth has what I have right now,' he says in his trademark tone—a deadpan delivery that somehow manages to sound at once bleak and exhilarated. 'No one ever has. And I don’t know that I ever will again.'"

 

(photo cc by Jungleboy.)