Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

https://buy.louisck.net/purchase

by rb2k_ • 15 years ago

592 157 15 years ago

buy.louisck.net

rb2k_• 15 years ago

I'd LOVE to see more content producers distributing their own content rather than giving money to middlemen. I am not sure if this would also work for people that DON'T have their own TV show but just start doing things. Maybe something akin to "openers" on concerts would work. Bundling less known content in a "pay what you want" basis.

city41• 15 years ago

Although I agree, I'm not sure this distribution method scales as is. I just sent Louis 5 bucks, downloaded the video, copied it to a USB drive, and then hooked it up to my Roku. I'm fine doing that ad hoc process occasionally, but if I got most of my media this way it'd get old very fast.

Surely there is a better way to distribute this stuff such that it doesn't take away the nice advantages and gives most/all the money to the artist too?

neutronicus2• 15 years ago

My mileage varies. I love that I don't have to let some "platform" like iTunes or Steam put its tentacles in my computer in order to get an individual piece of media.

Fluxx• 15 years ago

It's pretty close to that now. I have an RSS feed hooked up to µTorrent that automatically downloads new items I add to my RSS feed (in this case it's TV shows from a private tracker website) or newly available ones from my existing list of favorites. The downloaded files get stored to a folder on my Drobo which I could hypothetically have Plex scan and add to my media library. Instead, because I'm anal about my media sorting, I manually move them to folders by movie/show/season/artist/etc that Plex scans. But that's overkill. Plex then makes my media available on my big TV through my Mini, my bedroom TV through my jailbroke AppleTV and on my mobile devices through the Plex iOS apps.

If the market ever allows for a consumer-level product to achieve this (my solution is very geeky) and it works well, it will be successful.

wdewind• 15 years ago

You're totally right, but those optimizations to this process don't become economically feasible until more than a few people are making a living this way. Sending Louis CK $5 right now is a simple way to make it possible for him to be an example for others in his industry, and thus create a market for the type of product you are talking about. So you've already started solving your own problem, and you didn't even write a line of code!

dantheman2• 15 years ago

I'm really glad he did this. I picked up a copy, and in fact am quite glad when I can actually purchase DRM free content. I take a principled position against intellectual property, but that doesn't mean I don't support artists - I just don't endorse monopolies. Hopefully, overtime as more and more artists release content themselves the middlemen will go out of business and we can move towards a more free society.

ck23• 15 years ago

"Without DRM" should be in the title here. It's the critical part of the experiment.

I'm curious to see what happens, hope he gives an update of some kind.

turoczy• 15 years ago

His description of why he did it:

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 a 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 this 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.

freemarketteddy2• 15 years ago

absolutely brilliant!

yangez• 15 years ago

Wow. His simple tone belies the brilliance in his writing here. I seriously doubt he just spent 5 minutes scribbling this out as an afterthought. He gets a few key ideas across:

- he doesn't understand torrenting and so is helpless against it

- he cares about his viewers more than taking advice about DRM

- the video is owned solely by him and not some soulless corporation, and you're directly hurting him by torrenting

- you'll destroy his faith in mankind if you torrent

- five dollars is nothing compared to all that!

All of which combines to make you feel like a huge asshole for even considering pirate bay - in the nicest possible way. This type of thing makes a lot more sense than DRM in his case, and I bet it's a lot more effective too.

shadowfox• 15 years ago

Indeed. But I am curious what would happen if a lot more people did this. Would such an appeal lose effectiveness?

Natsu3• 15 years ago

Damn, I would've bought it if not for requiring PayPal. I don't have an account or want one.

conradev• 15 years ago

This is especially seen in the alert you get after clicking the 'What is this?' button.

"It's nothing, I just wanted to say hi! Hope everything is going well for you!"

corkill• 15 years ago

I agree, he obviously understands the entire issue much much better than most artists.

danso3• 15 years ago

In this email purportedly from Louis in 2009, he sternly but politely asks someone to take down their bootleg taping of his routine:

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86011/comedian-louis-ck-asks-mi...

>>HI. I’m Louis CK. Can you please take this down? This show is a work in progress and was not intended to be passed around the internet. I have absolutely no problem, personally, with file sharing, and if you take everythign [sic] I have on the market on DVD, CD, and put it up for free downloading, I don’t care. But this is an artistic and personal request. Please take this torrent down. thanks. LCK

mietek• 15 years ago

Clearly, the reason is that he's not happy with an unfinished version of his work floating around.

nikcub3• 15 years ago

That isn't a copyright thing though, that is a standup thing.

fanboy123• 15 years ago

From Twitter:

I'm going to be doing an IAMA on Reddit, Monday around 1230pmEST I don't know what IAMA or Reddit are, but I'll be doing that.

awesome bunch of geeky-openness from ck.

hyperbovine• 15 years ago

I'm a huge fan, but professing total ignorance of all things technology reminds me of being in the fourth grade. Luckily for him doing an IAMA on Reddit doesn't involve performing sex acts on a donkey. Seriously, either he's become one of America's most successful standups in spite of his complete naivete, or he's a lot more shrewd than he's making out.

tgrass3• 15 years ago

Personal respect for the artist notwithstanding, this is not a replicable model for others. He makes it up in volume.

This is not a general solution.

tg32• 15 years ago

why not? He already got paid a significant sum by the ticketholders at beacon theater, so all he has to recoup is the cost of producing the special, which he did largely himself.

The marginal cost of distributing an additional copy of his work is minimal, and his pricing reflects that, and makes people more likely to pay for it rather than steal it.

Can you elaborate on why you don't think this is a general solution?

john_b• 15 years ago

I am downloading now. I'm glad he is willing to experiment here; this is what the entertainment industry as a whole really needs.

lukeholder• 15 years ago

I bought it! supporting the non DRM, content producer/distributor model.

caiusdurling• 15 years ago

I bought this purely to support him for being brave enough to release it DRM-free. Currently watching it and trying not to snort my drink over my laptop due to laughing too much.

Excellent way to discover a new comic I'd say.

nathos• 15 years ago

If you have access to Netflix streaming, his show Louie [http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Louie/70179977] and one of his older stand-up specials "Chewed Up" [http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Louis_C.K._Chewed_Up/70108...] are available.

Qz• 15 years ago

Louie is also available on Hulu (though I'm not sure about the first season).

leftnode• 15 years ago

His show "Louie" is equal parts drama and comedy. It's really an amazing show and he's easily the top comedian today, hands down.

trafficlight• 15 years ago

Louie is a great show. He is the master of uncomfortable situations.

VMG2• 15 years ago

One should add that it is more postmodern and non-linear than regular drama.

thehodge• 15 years ago

I wonder how much he makes after bandwidth + paypal fees, he limits it to 2 streams and 2 downloads but the file is still 1.2 gig so not a small one..

pkulak• 15 years ago

Bandwidth is pretty crazy cheap these days. I can't imagine it costing more than a quarter to send out a couple gigs.

dreamux• 15 years ago

About 14 cents per download (streams are probably even smaller) on the lowest tier of S3 (once you're over 10TB/mo it gets even cheaper).

izak30• 15 years ago

about $4, if you use up all four download/stream slots.

mhd• 15 years ago

And I can buy it from any country, as long as I have a paypal account. Neat.

tednaleid• 15 years ago

You don't have to have a paypal account, you just have to use paypal to pay. Account creation is optional.

VMG2• 15 years ago

Just bought it here in Germany, where it's not easy to get his stuff. I would have paid 10$ (7,5 Euros) if he had a Humblebundle pricing scheme.

deepkut• 15 years ago

Add that to the list of how awesome this guy is.

igorgue• 15 years ago

And I thought Louis CK was awesome, this makes him more awesome :). I love his show and specials.

freemarketteddy2• 15 years ago

This gives me so much hope....I think we are going to see a revolution in Art and Media as more of these guys start getting "it"...The days of Big brother and his army of douchebag MBA's is soon going to be over!

Timothee• 15 years ago

I recommend reading his explanation of why he did it the way he did (meaning DRM-free and based on trust), even though he's been advised not to.

It's very earnest and has a feel of "listen, I created this. You're likely to like it. If you give me a bit of money, I'll give you access to it. You can do whatever you want with it, but just keep in mind that I worked and paid for it being made."

a.k.a what Louis CK would probably sum up as "just don't be an asshole, ok?"

ck23• 15 years ago

Is anyone wondering how long until PayPal locks his account?

Not wishing for it to happen - but realize it's PayPal.

Now if we can just get him to be making jokes about PayPal, that I'd pay to see.

dangrossman4• 15 years ago

> but realize it's PayPal.

Which several hundred million people use without having their accounts locked.

ck23• 15 years ago

People use it for single small transactions.

Wait until paypal sees hundreds of thousands of $5 payments and a balance over $100k

- especially if his account is relatively new - unless his people were smart enough to pre-empt this with them.

tpowell• 15 years ago

I synced my bank account with Dwolla. Now I wait. And wait.

bobds2• 15 years ago

I've enjoyed much of Louis CK's content without a chance to put some money in his pocket. So I've bought this.

$5 feels like a good price point. I don't think I would have paid $20, especially if I knew that he would only be getting a small fraction of that. Bonus points for making it a 1.2 GB h264 encode. I hope this works out great for Louis and makes other people want to try it.

brentvatne• 15 years ago

Happy to support this with my five dollars! Hopefully this model catches on.

masklinn3• 15 years ago

> Hopefully this model catches on.

If the success of NiN's "Ghosts I-IV" was not sufficient, I doubt that one will be. It's a long walk, uphill, on a 10G planet, of a slope the size of Olympus Mons.

khuey• 15 years ago

Olympus Mons actually has a low slope (about 5 degrees). It gets to be the tallest volcano in the solar system by being 400 miles wide.

d0mine• 15 years ago

A typical person without a g-suit will black out at around 6 g. </quote> http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Effect-Gravity-Human-Body/165...

lgeek• 15 years ago

Chromium crashed during my first attempt to download the show and then I ran out of free disk space the second time (yeah, SSDs are a bit too small).

Anyway, my point is that starting a download and then only getting a couple of MBs shouldn't really count as using a download slot. On the other hand, I don't know if it's possible to check how much data has been transferred using existing technology. He seems to be using Amazon CloudFront.

dantheman2• 15 years ago

Ideally it'd work where they generate a URL for you that works for 24 hours or something like that, or they give you a one time url, but you can generate as many as you'd like for 24 hours. If for instance they see someone generate 100 or 1000 or something they can then revoke their permissions.

jamesbkel• 15 years ago

Based on the tone of Louis CK in his description, I would try sending some feedback on the problem... he appears receptive. It's only been available for one day so far, so I imagine he would appreciate a chance to improve the system.

count• 15 years ago

If you buy tickets to a concert, and then something comes up where you can't make it, do you get to go again for free?

I don't see this as being unreasonable, especially for $5 with no licensing or DRM or anything around it.

tfb• 15 years ago

I bought this not only because Louis CK is both awesome and hilarious, but because I really, really want his "method" to become more widespread. I know it's a long shot, but I hope so many people buy this because of how he's released it that it garners some serious attention towards the issue and proves that restrictions like DRM are actually hurting the applicable industries.

adgar• 15 years ago

Protip: You can start playing the video in VLC/your favorite player as soon as the download starts, if your download rate is fast enough to keep up.

mladenkovacevic• 15 years ago

I hope he pulls it off and if anyone can it's someone with as much credibility and talent as Louis CK.

I feel like I'm getting a bargain at $5, knowing how much enjoyment I'll get from his material. That couldn't be said for the majority of studio-supported/produced mind-numbing crap out there. Sa-da-tay!

kisstheblade• 15 years ago

Well DRM helps nothing to stop a video from being torrented, so why bother with it. I think Louis CK is smart enough to understand this, and with this personal appeal will probably sell better than using the usual methods.

I bought a copy because of this. It's nice to support the artist directly especially when the video file finally is as good as the versions you usually find only on torrent sites (no "you criminal" warnings eg. like on store bought DVD:s. Nice way to thank those that have actually paid for the content...).

jgeralnik2• 15 years ago

Just bought it. While I'm really happy to support DRM free content, I must say I am somewhat disappointed that you can only download it twice.

"PLEASE NOTE that you can only stream the film twice AND you can download the film twice. Once you start a stream of the film, your stream will be active for 8 hours. Once you have exceeded your streaming and download limits, you will need to purchase the film again to stream or download it again. However once you have fully downloaded the film, you are of course free to watch it as many times as you like. "

icey• 15 years ago

How much bandwidth do you think $5 buys?

bobds2• 15 years ago

I think it's on AWS. So whatever that buys you on Amazon.

The 2 download limit made me worry about disconnecting or restarting the download. I also can't make my download manager open more than one connection, in case that locks me out of the content I just bought. I think it should be higher, but I understand that he can't give away too much bandwidth without cutting into his profits.

wx77• 15 years ago

For amazon cloudfront at the most expensive tier it buys close to 42 GB but then there would be no profit in sending the file 34 times (someone said it was a 1.2 GB file).

It makes sense to me why he is only allowing a few downloads otherwise a few extreme users could take up all his money just by streaming.

kingkilr• 15 years ago

A little over 40GB on S3.

neutronicus2• 15 years ago

It lives on his personal server, right? Seems reasonable for one guy paying for his own bandwidth.

bahman2000• 15 years ago

AWS as far as I can tell.

adelevie4• 15 years ago

So if you bought it and exhausted your download limit, just torrent it. Or just buy and torrent it in the first place to save a little extra for Louis.

adelevie4• 15 years ago

To whoever downvoted, I'd like to read a polite explanation why.

danso3• 15 years ago

He also shoots and edits his own show (Louie, on FX) using a RED camera and his own laptop. He famously fought for total editorial control of his show (to the betterment of all of us viewers) and now he's not even taking a step back when it comes to distribution. Good for him

http://gizmodo.com/5658621/how-louis-ck-shoots-and-edits-his...

cavilling_elite2• 15 years ago

I didn't know this! This is fantastic. I'm glad to see he is pushing the envelope for both humor and distribution.

jronkone2• 15 years ago

I think there's a huge pent-up demand for software that makes it easy for artists to publish their own content on their own websites easily and also makes making and collecting payments as easy as downloading torrents.

Probably something like that already exists, but the fact is that most of the content seems to be aggregated in different kinds of services that the artists don't really control themselves.

sahillavingia2• 15 years ago

This is exactly what I'm trying to do with Gumroad: http://gumroad.com

(I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback)

adelevie4• 15 years ago

I checked out the link and found it a little sparse and details. What does it mean to sell a link? I think you need a lot more info on the landing and about pages.

jronkone2• 15 years ago

The idea seems good, but I think many people would prefer a demo (or more explanation) about how it actually works, preferably without the user needing to supply his/her email.

On the technical side, the scrolling text seems to overlap to the next line on some zoom-settings (I'm using Firefox 8 if it matters).

heyitsnick• 15 years ago

agree with sibling comment - what exactly happens when i sign up? so i get a link to send people, what does the user see? how do they pay? etc. these are the first questions i have and should be answered on the landing page, maybe with a video demo.

Another bit of feedback - imo remove the end bit of this sentence, in your FAQ re. pricing: "Simple. It's 5% + $0.30 for each transaction. We're working hard to get this lower.". You have just put the idea in my head that 5% + 0.3 is too much. now i have doubts. maybe now i should shop around? or roll my own? or wait for prices to go down? no need to sow this seed. 5% + 0.3, and you are covering transaction costs? total bargain

nikcub3• 15 years ago

you should think about why somebody like louis ck would spent what sounds like a lot of money to setup it up themselves rather than go to an existing service

it sounds like these guys want control of the process and the users. you could ping them and provide something they don't have at the moment, like a better solution to the downloading streaming (Which some users a complaining about)

this could be a huge opportunity for you, i'd definitely ping him

resnamen• 15 years ago

Excellent. I gave him my $5.

Louis CK is a media maverick and I wish him good luck. His only condition for the network when he created his TV series was "you don't screw with my writing". And he chases opportunities like this because he just thinks in his gut that it might be the better way forward. Most personalities are too in thrall to meddling PR overlords to take principled stands like these.

antimora• 15 years ago

I checked out the sample video and noticed in the end louisck.COM was mentioned and not lousck.NET. Both of the sites seem to look alike, except .net version has more tweets.

cavilling_elite2• 15 years ago

I bought it twice. Hopefully his next release will have a "pay what you want" model with $5 minimum.

davesims3• 15 years ago

The Marc Maron 2-part interview with Louis is one of the best podcasts ever made. Louis goes into his production process, how he creates 2 hours of new material every year, and why he brought in Jean Luc Godard's DP to film Pootie Tang. Will definitely make you want to put up a measly 5 bucks for just about anything Louis does.

http://wtfpod.libsyn.com/episode-111-louis-ck-part-1

ineedtosleep• 15 years ago

Since I'm not willing to pay for an app just to listen to one podcast, the "2 hours of new material every year" bit (I'm assuming) is also explained in Louis CK's speech about the late George Carlin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R37zkizucPU

hackernews• 15 years ago

You should be able to figure out what the direct link is or you can just google it.

davesims3• 15 years ago

WTF is the best comedy podcast out there, hands-down. The 2-part with Louis is worth the price of admission alone, but there's many more that are as well. If you like comedy at all and a contrarian, alternative point of view, I can't recommend it highly enough.

ashconnor• 15 years ago

http://huffduffer.com/ZicklePop/31342

No idea of the legality. Please remove if it's not.

gruseom3• 15 years ago

Louis CK is an interesting example of an artist who has grown. His stuff from 20 years ago (that I've seen, at least) was really bad; it was timid and boxed in by convention, which is death to comedy. Somewhere along the way he obviously said fuck it and started telling the truth more directly and provocatively. And that is how lead is transmuted into gold. Funniness is almost a side effect.

Now he seems closer than anyone working in this area to Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks territory (if anybody's closer, I'd love to hear about them) with at least a shot at equalling them, which would be amazing.

JonnieCache2• 15 years ago

Doug Stanhope has a damn good go at it.

gruseom3• 15 years ago

Sorry, can't agree. Way too harsh on the surface and not enough insight underneath.

pmcginn• 15 years ago

Doug was on Louie this season and did an amazing job. He seems to be a comedian's comedian--his name comes up in interviews all the time when comedians are asked who's their favorite among their peers.

onewland• 15 years ago

Greg Proops is fantastic, but not everybody will like him. But he definitely ventures into less funny and more socially conscious territory with comfort and without pretension (ok, maybe a little pretension).

hudibras• 15 years ago

My three-year-old loves his work as Bob the Builder.

shinykitten• 15 years ago

In this video [1], he explains what happened "somewhere along the way". TL;DW: He failed at being a successful comic by telling the same jokes for 15 years, then got inspired by and emulated George Carlin, threw everything away and started over.

His story is not only inspiring, it transcends comedy. The idea that a mixed but passionate reaction is better than a lukewarm one applies to startups as well as entertainment.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R37zkizucPU

gruseom3• 15 years ago

Thanks, that sounds great. I will watch it later.

nikcub3• 15 years ago

amazing what a bad relationship can do to a man

tptacek• 15 years ago

I like Patton Oswalt and also Chris Rock, but both have gotten schtickier as time has gone on.

The same undercurrent of respect for comedy- as- craft runs through Patton Oswalt's stuff though, which even if that doesn't automatically make him Bill Hicks, I still very much enjoy hearing about.

Louis CK is also excellent live; if you're seeing him live in a given year, you're basically guaranteed to be getting an entirely new show.

aboodman• 15 years ago

  <meta name="author" content="versionindustries.com" />

I would love to know more about how this was produced. Like what level of decision Louis himself was involved in.

The writing is great and the design is clean. I want to believe he micromanaged everything. Or even that he made this site himself and that this line was a paste-o that he forgot to remove.

Edit: Nuts: "their company (that built the site) is called Version Industries". gotta tweet that shit."

ddw• 15 years ago

All of his copy is awesome:

Thanks for subscribing to the Louis C.K. email list. I swear to Christ* I will not bother you now that I have your email.

To complete your subscription, you need to confirm you got this email. To do so, please click the link below: ...

*(of course I mean Bill Christ, who owns a Fiat dealership in Ronkonkoma, NY and has diabetes)

Which makes me think - why does anyone write boring standard auto emails? But I guess no one is as funny as him and we don't need more Groupon copy in the world.

Can't say enough about this guy.

robert_mygengo• 15 years ago

Best part of this for me is that I can now actually pay to watch something outside of the US from an artist I like. If you don't live outside the US or UK you probably don't realize how rare that is.

mlnowak• 15 years ago

Truly fantastic approach. Just downloading the video, and happy to pay $5.

postscapes1• 15 years ago

I recently saw something similar for the film http://urbanizedfilm.com/stream/ that uses http://distrify.com/ to handle payment/streaming/affiliates all within the embed itself.

jonbro2• 15 years ago

A small point, but something that is really nice. At the end of the form where you enter your email address, the sign up to his mailing list is checked no by default. I switched it to yes partially because of that.

avar2• 15 years ago

When you buy it you get directed to a page linking to:

    https://buy.louisck.net/account/download

Which is a redirect to:

    http://download.aws.louisck.net/Louis_CK_Beacon_1280x720.mp4?Expires=<unix timestamp>&Signature=<long string>&Key-Pair-Id=<an id>

Which can be downloaded e.g. with wget and is a:

    $ file Louis_CK_Beacon_1280x720.mp4 
    Louis_CK_Beacon_1280x720.mp4: ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 2

jarin• 15 years ago

I'm still going to pay the 5 bucks, because far be it from me to take advantage of an honest comedian's technological incompetence.

avar2• 15 years ago

Oh that's not how I meant it. I've paid my $5 for it and downloaded it, and that link I posted will return a 403 without the right authorization.

I posted it because I was worried that I couldn't download it with wget before I bought it, I'm on a 3G connection through my phone and I wanted to download it to my server so I could download it later from a more capable connection.

I sent the below E-Mail to their support address (support@louisck.net) and I'd encourage others who bought this to send something similar do the same. I think it's important to tell artists that this sort of distribution is appreciated:

    Thanks for making this show available in non-DRM format. I haven't
    watched it yet, but I bought it and downloaded it already.
    
    My friends and I have been following your work for a while, I've
    watched both your HBO TV shows and downloaded a bunch of your
    standups. But since I don't live in the US and don't want to buy DRM
    content I haven't paid you for any of this.
    
    However I'm happy to be able to when you offer something in this
    format. I can pay for it even if I don't live in the US, and I don't
    have to buy something like a DVD or subscribe to something like iTunes
    where I'll effectively be getting a worse service by locking the media
    I buy into some corporation's proprietary distribution platform.
    
    But if you keep offering things in this way in the future I'll be sure
    to pay for them.
    
    It's not that I'm cheap. I make a very good living, and I'm happy to
    pay for things. I just think it's unethical to pay for media when part
    of the proceeds go to conglomerates like the MPAA which are actively
    working towards reducing freedom on the Internet.

tgrass3• 15 years ago

If this were the business model for airbnb, how far would they have gotten with pg?

Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

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