Louis CK is about as hot as a comedian can get right now. Taking a page from the direct to fan playbook that's been used by many indie musicians since Nine Inch Nails proved its potential, he decided to eliminate all middle men, record a love concert and sell it from his own web site for $5. The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. Three days laters he'd netted $200,000. Here's a look inside the project:
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“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 (12/13), 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."
“I also got an education... I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common interest, jokes about garbage, penises and parenthood."
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