Comments on: DRM-free experiment makes Louis CK a millionaire

By: wrybread

wrybread — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 16:08:00 +0000

I bought last week and still haven’t watched it. I’ve torrented other stuff from him in the past though and figured he deserved $5 from me.

By: MrJM

MrJM — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:44:00 +0000

Jeff Dunham?

By: fobia

fobia — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:57:00 +0000

I guess when I said I wasn’t sure where I fit meant, not many people are going to admit to downloading it illegally, then paying for it. There just wont be a true number for that. Obviously I am not the only one, but likely a minority.
I do the same for music, download first, (maybe) pay later.

By: marilove

marilove — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:22:00 +0000

I just assume the additional $250k is going to pay for whatever the ticket costs didn’t pay for. He’s not exactly a brilliant mathematician or accountant so I think we can give him some slack, here.

By: marilove

marilove — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:13:00 +0000

You were counted, then, since really he’s only counting the money he made, not the actual downloads made (and I think you can download more than once, and also stream).

By: marilove

marilove — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:08:00 +0000

From his Wikipedia:
C.K.’s stage name is derived from an approximate English pronunciation of his Hungarian surname, Szekely (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈseːkɛj])

By: zebbart

zebbart — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Maybe the next step in self distribution will be just selling the torrent file so that you don’t have to pay for as much bandwidth. It’s basically an honor system now anyway, and what Louis as really selling was warm fuzzies since the special could easily be had for free. (I bought the warm fuzzies myself.)

By: Sarah Neptune

Sarah Neptune — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:15:00 +0000

I’m glad I now know his last name: Szekely! Of course. Sounds like ‘CK’, how about that. Nice. Doesn’t rhyme with shekel-y, though he is that now, too.

Wow, the Szekelys have a fascinating page on wikipedia.

By: Noctilucent Studios

Noctilucent Studios — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:09:00 +0000

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Louis CK is the real deal!

By: Michael Crumpton

Michael Crumpton — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:45:00 +0000

Plus I am sure he can resell the performance to the cable networks as well.

By: fobia

fobia — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:41:00 +0000

Not sure where I fit in the statistics, but I downloaded the show, watched it, enjoyed it, then bought it.
Didn’t bother to download it from his site.

By: Josh Jasper

Josh Jasper — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:50:00 +0000

That leaves me with 220k for myself. Some of that will pay my rent and will care for my childen. The rest I will do terrible, horrible things with and none of that is any of your business. In any case, to me, 220k is enough out of a million.

I never viewed money as being “my money” I always saw it as “The money” It’s a resource. if it pools up around me then it needs to be flushed back out into the system.

-Louis CK

By: digi_owl

digi_owl — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:40:00 +0000

Heh. i think Doctorow has a anecdote, where he shows that when he started giving away ebooks people was saying he could do so because he was “nobody”. But when that turned into a success, the arguments turned into “oh, but you have success because your well known”. Can’t have it both ways. Imo, success is any time you have a stable living doing something you like. The platinum records and multi-million salaried are outliers in the greater picture.

By: lvl99

lvl99 — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:02:00 +0000

The fine print being that yes you can do something as big and well-received as this if you’re someone like Louis CK.

By: cfuse

cfuse — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:23:00 +0000

Figuring out the business model for selling your comedy special is easy.

Figuring out the business model for purchases and other financial transactions that cuts out the third party corporate scum is hard.

By: Eric S.

Eric S. — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:20:00 +0000

Maybe he hired a clever accountant between the first quote and the second?

By: ialreadyexist

ialreadyexist — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:17:00 +0000

Brian Regan, Jim Gaffigan, Jake Johannson

By: oldtaku

oldtaku — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:30:00 +0000

Louis! For gods sake, the first thing you need to do is get your money the f@#$ out of Paypal before they decide to freeze the account because it’s Christmas or a Tuesday or whatever.

By: Scott Bell

Scott Bell — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:18:00 +0000

I’ve known quite a few people who used paypal to sell their artwork and had some serious problems getting their money. I hope he doesn’t run into any issues.

By: peterblue11

peterblue11 — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:02:00 +0000

250k for downloads?? Where did u read that? Sounds like complete BS, sorry. As far as i know cost totalled at 250k-fullstop.

By: nox

nox — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:34:00 +0000

What other active comedians do you like? I think Louis is the best we have right now, but I’d love to learn about others.

By: Fixer

Fixer — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:33:00 +0000

“I directed this video myself and the production of the video cost around $170,000. (This was largely paid for by the tickets bought by the audiences at both shows).”

then later

“the first 250k is going to pay back what the special cost to produce and the website to build.”

He needs a better producer.

By: BarBarSeven

BarBarSeven — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:52:00 +0000

I think folks miss the point. Whatever his fees and costs were to to produce, manage and collect payments for this experiment he is tons ahead of the money he would have personally pocketed if he—let’s say—went with HBO or Comedy Central. He might only be getting a slice of a larger pie, but it’s a much larger slice with less “fat” from studio production costs.

What his experiment proves is that you can do something like this.

By: zebbart

zebbart — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:42:00 +0000

It seems like he has said tickets paid for the show, but then he has also said the show was paid for by downloads, so I am confused. And based on what he has said about writing and road testing, it’s probably more like 6 months work by a master craftsman. Still, pretty awesome. So….. let loose the torrents?

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:14:00 +0000

Seriously, I’d rather have the money than the platinum comedy album on my wall.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:13:00 +0000

whooooooooooooooosh.

typical whoosh type.

By: marilove

marilove — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:13:00 +0000

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/08/05/dane-cook-settles-joke-stealing-feud-on-louis/

Louis CK wrote that episode.

By: Bradley Hall

Bradley Hall — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:12:00 +0000

I love this, I really do. I’ve enjoyed Louis CK’s work in the past and this will get more people into it. I’m not surprised he’s made a million on it, I’m just surprised at how fast he got there. That means 200,000 people paid $5 for this video.

By: Aric Forbing

Aric Forbing — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:57:00 +0000

Bought one after I read the first article. Totally stoked that he has way more money than me. :)

By: Steve Norcup

Steve Norcup — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:57:00 +0000

From the original boing boing post…

“Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58).”

Typical occupy type