As I often do, let me start this post with a disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer or a copyright specialist and probably couldn’t argue with any reasonably talented devil’s advocate on this topic for more than 15 minutes before they out-debated me. But – I’m really fascinated by watching how technology is redefining and even destroying traditional models of production, distribution and consumption. It’ll suck for a few old-school organizations for a while, but I really think we’re on the cusp of a digital verison of the industrial revolution, and we’ve only scratched the surface. One particular aspect that fascinates me is how digital distribution is cutting out the middle man and letting entertainers connect with their audiences directly. There have been a few notable events in this slow-but-sure transition, but the one that really connected with me was the release of Louis C.K’s new standup special, Live at the Beacon Theater, which he did wrote, hosted, produced and edited entirely on his own and made available online for $5 (150 baht).

I’ve been a fan of Louis ever since he did his Lucky Louie show, which was very rough, very (very) raw, and really honest and funny. Since then he’s slowly but surely emerged as one of the funniest, most honest comedians entertainers working today. His new show, titled simply Louie, has all of the best attributes of Lucky Louie, but it’s more polished and more mature. As a comedian, Louis is truly, brutally, funny and he’s mastered the ‘frustrated everyman’ character. He’s been doing standup for years, but it wasn’t until the below video from the Conan O’Brien show exploded online that he really got some love from the general public:

And if that doesn’t make you laugh, how about this one – only Louis could make the story of punching a dog in the face hilarious:

At any rate, Louis writes, directs, acts, edits and produces every episode of his new show, plus he does an hour of new standup material each year, which many pro comedians – who coast for years on a good 30 minutes of material – find absolutely insane. But for his latest special, he tried something new. No distributors, no studios, no television stations. Just him, a website, and his fans. I’ll be honest, I’m an ace at using Bit Torrent, but when I clicked over to Loue’s site and read his introduction, I immediately signed up to give him $5. It read:

To those who might wish to “torrent” this video: look, I don’t really get the whole “torrent” thing. I don’t know enough about it to judge either way. But I’d just like you to consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway, because I want it to be easy for people to watch and enjoy this video in any way they want without “corporate” restrictions.

Please bear in mind that I am not a company or corporation. I’m just some guy. I paid for the production and posting of this video with my own money. I would like to be able to post more material to the fans in the way, which makes it cheaper for the buyer and more pleasant for me. So, please help me keep this being a good idea. I can’t stop you from torrenting; all I can do is politely ask you to pay your five little dollars, enjoy the video, and let other people find it in the same way.

Sincerely, Louis C.K.

And to top it all off, he made it ridiculously easy to buy – it took me literally 45 seconds on a single page on his website and I was downloading his new special. No passwords, no memberships, no ads. On a Reddit IAmA (kind of a user-generated interview), he wasn’t sure his experiement would work, saying:

I’m not going to say yet what it’s making. It’s so damn interesting though to be doing this. I feel like i have a front seat to a really cool… thing. I don’t even know what it is. 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.

Well, it turns out his experiment was a pretty huge success. In the face of so much interest from his fans to see if things worked the way he hoped they would, he posted this on his website four days after his special went up:

First of all, this was a premium video production, shot with six cameras over two performances at the Beacon Theater, which is a high-priced elite Manhattan venue. 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). The development of the website, which needed to be a very robust, reliable and carefully constructed website, was around $32,000.

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.

Consumers are smart, and the slick hard sell can be smelled from a mile away. Sure, there will always be a market for pre-packaged entertainers who perform from behind publicity machines and through the filter of studios, but I really think that the ways in which technology is changing meshes quite nicely with the ways consumers are changing. Most realize we don’t need a booklet or a special hologram or a “Limited edition coupon inside!” to enjoy a CD or a DVD – we just want the product we’re paying for.
The master at work.

The master at work.

I hope this trend continues. Louis, Radiohead, Trent Reznor (both of whom have had success with similar models) and others have the same equipment that anyone else can have, but it’s their talent that shines. The product that we’re buying is their talent, but it could just as easily be your talent or my talent. However, the one thing that these types of releases (and eventually, bigger releases) will soon cease to be is what the studios tell us they should be. They will be what the artistis want them to be, which is how it should be.
And really, if you want to show your audience that you understand how things work, something like this doesn’t hurt. Also note that the default setting was opt-out – a small touch, but it was appreciated:
Louis screencap