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Comment by rkudeshi | Hacker News Reader

I know Louis CK was successful in this model, but at the time I expressed hesitation about others following his lead.

He made a good amount of money, but given Louis CK is probably the most popular working comedian today, it didn't seem like ENOUGH money to justify the entire business model (assuming no one else would make as much doing the same).

But now Aziz Ansari is doing it. Jim Gaffigan has announced plans to do so as well.

I know we'll have to wait for their numbers to come in to find out if Louis CK was a fluke or a trend, but I'm really hoping I was wrong and it's the latter.

If this is the future of selling online content, sign me up.

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I think you were wrong.

Considering Jeff Foxworthy has sold over 15 million albums[1], recently had a primetime show in syndication, and managed to make three of his drinking buddies into 8-figure yearly draws, I would say Louis CK is not even close to the most popular working comedian around. He has a rabid base, yes, but I would argue he's not even a mainstream comic (ie I would bet 9/10 people off the street would not know who he is).

I think this bodes very well for those who can mobilize a few hundred thousand people. What I think will be even more interesting is how this will affect those that can only mobilize a few thousand.

[1]http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/number_1/2005/04/jeff_fox...

I've known and enjoyed Louis CK since he first broke on late night TV. Also know less well Jim Gaffican but I've seen a few of his specials. Even seen Foxworthy's 'drinking buddy' Ron White live.

Am I the only one here who has never even heard of Aziz?

He is on the Parks and Rec show which is probably where most know him from.

I'd never heard of him and didn't particularly like the preview. I still paid the $5 because I would like to see this business model take off and the show might be funny. To be honest, I didn't find Louis CK's $5 offering all that funny.

Louis is the comedians comedian. He might not be the most popular, but he is the best at what he does right now. Ask any other comedian!

You may not be incorrect, but that's not what the commenter was saying. He was refuting the claim that 'Louis CK is probably the most popular working comedian today'.

Louis has a hit cable tv show, a deal for a network show on CBS and whenever almost any comedian is asked what other comedians they like are they usually reply in some form of "Louis, of course". Any fan of stand up comedy has at least heard of him.

He's not Jeff Foxworthy, but he's certainly "mainstream", although he's certainly not the most popular comedian around.

Louis CK is popular in the same way that a band like Arcade Fire is popular. Arcade Fire sells lots of albums and is highly respected by other musicians, but the band isn't as well known among most of America as a top 40 staple like Rihanna.

This represents sort of a "high" pop-culture, which would include popular indie music acts like Arcade Fire, TV shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad, and comedians like Louis CK and Jim Gaffigan.

I liked Louis CK from before his $5 special. When he released it, I read all about what the deal was, bought it, and thought it was at least five bucks worth of funny.

I also like Aziz Ansari, so when I saw this, I skipped the reading part-- I skimmed the copy on my way through the checkout process to make sure everything was cool (it was) and paid my money.

I'll keep doing that as long as artists I like keep releasing stuff like this.

I really really hope this trend catches on!

Plus you have to like the "freemium" model he did with the preview.

I'm pretty sure Louis CK thought it was more than enough money to justify the business model.

He released the numbers on his website after it had sold 250k "copies" within 11 days.

Production costs + website: $250k Revenue: $1M Profit: $750k ROI: 300%

He says that $250k was about how much he would have been paid by HBO or Comedy Central if he let them produce it. So his new model tripled his profit compared to the old model.

Which is probably why he ended up choosing to keep $220k for himself and giving the rest of the profit ($530k) to charity and to his staff.

Louis CK: "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."

Source: https://buy.louisck.net/news

Aziz isn't as big a name as Louis CK, but he's still a decent draw and has what I imagine would be a fairly dedicated fanbase. Assuming his special didn't cost too much to produce, I can see this method's working out pretty well for him.

One doesn't need to make Louis CK's total ROI to claim success here. Even if Aziz pockets a few hundred grand in net profit, that's nothing to sneeze at.

There are many webcomic artists who make a tidy profit on the same model (look at Rich Burlew's recent kickstarter.) If a niche artist can make that much, I'm sure mainstream artists can make at least that much.

And the value of getting the money directly with no middlemen is substantial.

I highly doubt that Louis CK is the most popular working comedian. He seems really underrated, in my experience.

Either way, I bought that show and loved it, probably will get this too.

Considering he sold 200,000 copies of his video in 12 days, I would say he's pretty popular.

Right now yes. I had no idea who he was before the story showed up on HN. I'm sure I'm not the only one who got to know him because of his stunt.

That also made some pretty big waves for the method of sale rather than it being Louie CK. I bet he got a lot of extra traction from that alone.

Agreed. There is a huge chunk of the population that believes CK is the best working comedian today which definitely gave him some early traction (early adopters)

I would say something more along the lines that a person like Dane Cook has many more fans by the numbers and if he pursued a project like this it would potentially have done even better than CK.

There are so many reasons why this model is great for comedians. Production costs are low so the risk is low. Profit margins, for the comedian, are far higher than with other forms of releasing a special, so total revenue can be higher. More so, because of the drm free aspects the show can have a broader reach than otherwise, increasing exposure and serving as promotional material for the comedian's acting gigs, next standup releases, and live shows. Expect this sort of thing to be the norm inside of 5 years if not sooner.

I think this is awesome, I LOVE Aziz and he did it smart by announcing it when it was available (misstep on Jim's part if you ask me). Buying it tonight, watching it with my GF next time she's over.

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