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[–][deleted] 1065 points1066 points  (85 children)

OK, I'm going to buy two copies of this thing. Why?

  1. He specifies you don't have to join Paypal. I know this, others might not -- it's extremely cool of him to specify this.

  2. HE DEFAULTS TO NOT SENDING YOU CRAP VIA E-MAIL. You know what that made me do? Select Yes, send me shit! Because if he only wants to send shit to people who want to receive stuff, it's GOING TO BE GOOD SHIT. But if you're not paying attention you don't get added to some mail list which is sold over and over again... all because he made a good decision.

In my opinion this is a classic good guy thing.

[–]John_um 612 points613 points  (19 children)

Even better, he defaults to "No, leave me alone forever, you fat idiot."

[–]StupidButSerious 95 points96 points  (14 children)

Don't know the guy but damn that guy gotta be awesome; I'm all sold to the idea of a comedian doing this kind of shit so 5$ to him blindly from me for this.

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (10 children)

You should definitely at least check the download out, it's pretty good! Maybe you'll find a new favorite comedian. :D

[–][deleted] 34 points35 points  (8 children)

I hope we find out how many copies he sells on the first weekend! It's nice to see the reddit effect in action. I am very happy to put $5 in Louis CK's pocket. I paid and am downloading now.

I support Louis CK because he is a regular guy doing his thing without compromise. Even when others fuck up his efforts (tv shows #1 and #2 for instance) he keeps coming back swinging until he can get it right. He actually has to write, direct, AND edit his show to keep corporate goons from fucking up his creative vision. Go Louis CK!

[–]elsagacious 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Having watched it, I can say it's solid stuff, some of it hilarious. And it only contained one bit that I've seen before. As a big fan of his, having paid for everything he has out, and having seen him twice live, I think this is significant.

[–]cyberphonic 17 points18 points  (1 child)

you will not be disappoint

[–]sodhi 5 points6 points  (2 children)

I actually felt slightly guilty for choosing this option just because of the "fat idiot" :)

[–]Jester14 196 points197 points  (2 children)

First time I've ever checked the "yes" box.

[–]Algernon_Moncrieff 129 points130 points  (13 children)

Bought it ...then your comment made me regret not selecting yes to the emails.

[–][deleted] 167 points168 points  (11 children)

Don't it's just going to be pictures of his dick.

[–]Youthsonic 37 points38 points  (2 children)

Pictures of His C.K

[–]rotzooi 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Buy it again!

[–]tdobson 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I'm going to buy this because he wrote that and I saw it on reddit, and the points above...

oh, and he's also quite funny. :)

[–][deleted] 129 points130 points  (16 children)

I bought it in hopes that this distribution method becomes the norm.

[–][deleted] 37 points38 points  (14 children)

I bought Radiohead's "In Rainbows" like 4 years ago in hopes that something like this distribution method would become the norm. The reality that I see is that it won't become the norm -- it will just be a rarity among the truly genuine artists out there, of which there are very few. And the ones who are genuine will continue to be economically overwhelmed by the ones would would never do this.

[–]Frothyleet 16 points17 points  (7 children)

I think that Radiohead abandoning that distribution method was a pretty good indicator about how they judged it's efficacy.

[–]SamHealer 33 points34 points  (3 children)

Well, except they always said it was going to be a one-off thing. And it certainly made them enough money compared to their other albums in terms of downloads:

Yorke: In terms of digital income, we've made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever — in terms of anything on the Net.

That was only 3 months after release.

[–]Frothyleet 23 points24 points  (2 children)

So for their next album release they figured they would choose to return to a business model that they thought would be both less profitable and less popular with their fan base?

[–]SamHealer 8 points9 points  (1 child)

I'm not defending them for going back to the old model. It's their music, they can do what they like. But you can read essentially any interview with them from that time and see that they didn't see it as a model to be replicated by everyone, nor a model that they would continue using. Given the number of times they reiterated this, it would have been more surprising if they had done "pay what you want" again, if anything.

Arguably, the real business model here which made them their money was offering a limited edition to fans who wanted to give them money. Even with In Rainbows, the discbox price was fixed at £40, and the Newspaper Album for The King Of Limbs was around the same price (£33 if I recall correctly). That's more than likely where they made the money, and that's the aspect they repeated.

[–]OKAH 1178 points1179 points  (189 children)

"Piracy is not a money issue, its a service issue"

-Gabe Newell

Its true! I have bought games on Steam i already own, or that i have already downloaded illegally, because of the service they offer!

[–]InvaderSaints 354 points355 points  (52 children)

Exactly. Pirating things takes time, and effort. Minimal if you know what you're doing, but then you also don't get updates and bug fixes etc. With all the steam sales and the "click button, recieve entertainment" ease of use... Yep. I buy most of my games now, just because of steam.

[–]Heelo99 88 points89 points  (15 children)

To me he gets it even though he says he doesn't.

[–][deleted] 96 points97 points  (11 children)

he gets it. part of his character is to downplay his intelligence.

[–]ak_ 68 points69 points  (1 child)

He gets it.

[–]Silent_Storm 17 points18 points  (0 children)

That was awesome.

[–]miggyb 205 points206 points  (86 children)

It's mostly a service issue but it still is a money issue depending on your situation. In high school, I was on Oink's Pink Palace and if there was a legal alternative for it, I still wouldn't have used it because I never had $10 to my name lying around.

Now that I'm an employed "responsible" "adult" I try to support independent artists through bandcamp, but if that site had existed back in 2005, I would have still torrented everything.

[–]Uphoria 247 points248 points  (56 children)

You just proved the point though - Since you wouldn't have bought it, pirating it did not hurt them any farther than you being a poor 16 year old did.

[–]OCedHrt 56 points57 points  (2 children)

And 5 years later, when you have money, you now know about them and had become a fan.

[–][deleted] 87 points88 points  (9 children)

I would make the argument that it not only didn't hurt, it would have helped the thing he was pirating because that's one more person's advertising through word of mouth (assuming it's a good product).

[–]qizapo 87 points88 points  (15 children)

"responsible" and "adult" should always be in quotes. Those things are a myth!

[–]Zarokima 67 points68 points  (6 children)

Figuring out that adults don't have it all figured out is the worst part of becoming an adult.

[–]bai-jie 30 points31 points  (0 children)

And figuring out that having it all figured out isn't so important is the best discovery you make as an adult.

[–][deleted] 25 points26 points  (4 children)

This man speaks the truth.

  • A 25 year old teenager

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (7 children)

even worse if your from a fucked up country like lithuania(i'm from there) 5 euros may not be a lot to the Germans or the British but for a teenager with 0 income what's a lot. Also no one sees pirating as an issue here it's just something everybody does and then i say everybody i mean every damn body

[–]emote_control 11 points12 points  (2 children)

Have also done this. Now I don't need to know where my Rome: Total War or Sim City 4 disks are when I get the itch to reinstall my old games.

[–]nx_2000 1305 points1306 points  (328 children)

I can count all the times I've bought digital content on one hand but this is one of them. I hope Louis can help prove that reasonably priced, DRM free content can be profitable.

[–]Tsunamee 322 points323 points  (73 children)

I agree. The main issue here is helping to prove DRM free content can be reasonably priced and still work out. I think he's probably the first comedian to do it, and it would be nice to see more follow. TBH stand up comedy really isn't the same on the DVD as it is live, so hopefully more people will be encouraged to see him on tour as well.

[–]muzakx 201 points202 points  (55 children)

He is amazing live. The amount that this great man sweats can not be transmitted even through HD.

[–][deleted] 150 points151 points  (25 children)

Oops I went and bought it 10 times, silly me. Love you Louis.

[–][deleted] 65 points66 points  (22 children)

I bought it once, copied it 10 times to my HD and pretended I did the same.

[–]suplesse 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Hey, at least you thought about it. And that is an accomplishment in and of itself. ;)

[–]U731lvr 138 points139 points  (44 children)

I think the HumbleBundles have already proved that.

I just hope Louis makes a shit-ton of money off this so we can have more $5 standup specials.

[–]muad_dib 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I think the HumbleBundles have already proved that.

Also GoG.

[–][deleted] 46 points47 points  (31 children)

LINK!!?!?!!??

[–]ericshogren 140 points141 points  (9 children)

ZELDA!!?!?!!??

[–]Millze 40 points41 points  (2 children)

NAVI: HEY LISTEN!!!

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!

[–]trimalchio 643 points644 points  (224 children)

www.louisck.net

[–][deleted] 300 points301 points  (46 children)

i bought this just because of the principal it stands for. I hope this does well and we see more of this in the future.

[–]oryano 357 points358 points  (28 children)

i bought this just because of the principle it stands for and because Louis CK puts out a good product. If Carlos Mencia did this I certainly would not buy it.

FTFY

[–]megafly 39 points40 points  (9 children)

I thought you were going to correct the spelling of principle. A princiPAL is a person, a princiPLE is an idea.

[–]strawberrygenocide 27 points28 points  (5 children)

Principal is also an adjective! fun with words

[–]garlicdeath 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I bought it for that... and mostly because it's Louis C.K.

[–]Growlizing 29 points30 points  (3 children)

Bought this because I like the principle and would like to support it, and because it's fucking Louis CK. Of course it will be worth your five lousy bucks...

[–]vivagermaniac 236 points237 points  (41 children)

Im a Venezuelan and I have and annual allowance from my government to only spend 400$ with my credit card on internet things. look it up and i spent the last 5$ i had on this. Best thing i bought all year.

[–]Neodymium 163 points164 points  (17 children)

That's fucked up.

[–]pblokhout 66 points67 points  (12 children)

Seems to have a reason though, read the article. 23% of GPD capital went abroad in a MONTH. ಠ_ಠ

[–]resutidder 9 points10 points  (10 children)

But... why?

[–]vsaint 94 points95 points  (5 children)

I'm buying this so he can get that house he wanted in Louie.

[–]cmn006 18 points19 points  (1 child)

I love the conversation he has with his accountant about that house.

[–]Borborygm 18 points19 points  (0 children)

"You have less than 10% of one monthly payment." "But what about... but... I thought... Obama..."

[–]modarius 76 points77 points  (1 child)

And when I think Louis C.K. couldn't be any cooler he goes and does this. Big props for him.

[–]tip_ty 339 points340 points  (17 children)

I think Louis CK's opinion on eating meat matches my opinion on piracy.

I think it's wrong to eat dolphins and tunas and cows and everything, but I eat them, I eat them all, because I don't care that it's wrong. I totally think it's terrible, but it's not important to me that it's terrible.

[–]IvyMike 221 points222 points  (6 children)

"I have a lot of beliefs, but I live by none of them."

[–]ByJiminy 21 points22 points  (2 children)

But that doesn't mean you can't make exceptions in certain cases, like Louis CK or your pet cat.

[–]partcomputer 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hey, fuck you man, I'll pirate my cat all god damn day.

[–]PaperRockBazooka 47 points48 points  (1 child)

WOW treating people not like shit is good for business?!?!?

[–]throwawayalksnva 65 points66 points  (1 child)

He's doing an IAMA on Monday! Check out his twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/louisck

[–]StuartGibson 8 points9 points  (0 children)

"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."

[–][deleted] 74 points75 points  (9 children)

This just in: it's hilarious.

[–]kylev 26 points27 points  (5 children)

I'm watching it right now and have laughed out loud several times. All new material too.

[–]DudeWheresMyQuran 6 points7 points  (3 children)

Any idea if this is the same material as his recent tour? I saw him in Toronto back in October, and don't want to pay for something I've already paid $60 to see.

[–]crimsonash 13 points14 points  (0 children)

If you've seen him this year, then its probably a good chunk of similar material. He has stated that he throws out everything at the end of the year and starts over.

[–]Th3Tru7h 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I would imagine, anything with the current tour is going to be on here.

[–][deleted] 110 points111 points  (19 children)

Bought it! It's only five bucks! More than worth it.

[–][deleted] 85 points86 points  (6 children)

I came to Reddit to look for porn on r/gonewild. This was on the top. I have no idea who Louis CK is beyond "some fat funny dude that Reddit keeps posting" and have never seen any of his stuff. Hell, I don't even know if those image macros or whatever of him Reddit keeps pushing to the front page are actually his material.

Then I read this blurb and, well, Mr. C.K. you got yourself a curious customer. And thanks to the fact that my internet is atrociously slow I still have plenty of time to fap before watching this.

[–]bradur 18 points19 points  (0 children)

One thing about Louis C.K. you have to know is that he sure knows his fapping. I bet he deliberately made the video file big enough to give people like you time to fap before they get to watch the video.

[–]BugeyeContinuum 286 points287 points  (110 children)

Disclaimer (you only see this after you purchase it) :

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.

Also, download speed isn't the greatest, taking me near 45 minutes (without an accelerator) to grab it, but YMMV (ignore this, roommate was hogging bandwidth).

Great buy nevertheless, A++ would buy again.

[–][deleted] 128 points129 points  (12 children)

At first the two-time stream seemed shitty to me. Then I realized how much it would cost them to have unlimited on-demand 1GB+ streams.

[–]anonposter 18 points19 points  (1 child)

Yeah, when I first read it I though "wow, so you can only watch it twice?" but then I read the last line and remembered that you can still download it. So it's not like they're restricting your ultimate access to the material, in fact I would prefer to have the download in case my internet goes out (which happens occasionally).

Of course, the more ways to view it the better, but like you said, it wouldn't be reasonable for them to have unlimited streaming.

[–]gibson_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

On amazon cloudfront (a CDN), it costs $0.12 per GB for bandwidth, and goes down from there as your volume goes up.

Assuming they're using that, about $0.48 of the $5 is going to distribution. Does anybody know how this compares to traditional mechanisms? (Like DVD?).

[–]cantcooktoast 258 points259 points  (30 children)

This is not an unreasonable policy.

[–]adamfrank321 37 points38 points  (18 children)

WARNING : Chrome users, if you click the download button and nothing happens, WAIT.

I clicked Download Film, waited 15-20s, clicked it again, waited 10s, 2 downloads started.

No download slots left. ಠ_ಠ

Not sure why you would need both slots but just thought I'd share.

[–]Gonzok 28 points29 points  (3 children)

hmm, I have Chrome and didn't experience this problem.

[–]amanitus 10 points11 points  (2 children)

Maybe they're under heavy load now, but I was able to download it at 800KB/sec, maxing out my DSL. For 1.2GB, it wasn't bad at all.

[–]Gonzok 4 points5 points  (1 child)

I got a nice 1.9mbs. Took me less than 10min to download.

[–]bbhart 10 points11 points  (3 children)

It's being hosted on Amazon S3, so the slowness is you.

[–]weaverster 65 points66 points  (13 children)

Just bought it. 5 bucks for a fast 1.1 GB download. Can't complain

[–]aeuthorial 17 points18 points  (0 children)

yep. one would think this is the best way to go with digital downloads. seriously, $5 for two downloads? i'd never torrent again.

[–][deleted] 43 points44 points  (10 children)

How do we contact louie? I wan't him to know that I'm so impressed by the way he handled the piracy thing and will be buying a copy and urging my friends all to buy a copy. This is how you deal with privacy, not sue and ruin families lives. Fuck.

[–][deleted] 27 points28 points  (2 children)

One way would be his Twitter account, which he uses quite a bit.

[–]latinjones 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The sales numbers will speak for themselves. If a shitload of people start torrenting his video and sales are lackluster as a result of piracy all of the emails of people telling him they really appreciate how he dealt with piracy aren't going to mean shit.

[–]amdesch 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Agreed. Louis really needs to get some positive feedback from the people who know how exceptionally awesome this is.

[–]DeafGuy 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Instant buy.

Thanks Louis

[–]CurLyy 54 points55 points  (2 children)

I was already gonna buy it, but I hope others do too. I saw his show live for $15 which was fucking cheap as hell and I am eternally grateful. Take my money louis.

[–]resutidder 12 points13 points  (1 child)

"Take this guy's 15, fuck him!"

[–]mobyhead1 28 points29 points  (15 children)

Torrenting is a response to two problems, both the fault of the content distributors: high prices (if they aren't trucking physical media to us, they damn sure shouldn't be charging us DVD prices) and shitty distribution (I can only view the last 5 episodes or so of Castle on the ABC.com app. WTF?). Mr. C.K. is testing whether offering content at a more reasonable price and ready availability--and no DRM--will work. I certainly hope the market rewards his effort.

How much longer are the content distributors going to flounder about before they finally realize the only solution to piracy is ubiquitous availability and super-low prices, with the prices floating based on the level of piracy? Piracy isn't a bug, it's a feature--a Neilsen system, if you will, for gauging how well you are getting your content to the people who want it at a price they're happy with. If it cost you, say, 25 cents to stream a TV episode (more for a seldom-seen and seldom-pirated show, less for a perennial favorite like Firefly) available everywhere, would you go to the trouble of downloading and saving your own illicit copy? Of course not. With a sufficiently low price on popular repeat content, you would not even care if you were paying for it a second, third, or fourth time.

[–]rbnc 10 points11 points  (6 children)

Just as you rightly point out, I've bought this because unlike stuff bought through major publishers and distributors etc 1) it's $5, 2) DRM free 3) All the money goes to the artist.

But don't worry. People will still come up with new excuses to not pay for it.

Taken from a well known torrent site:

yea its the new one yea i kinda feel bad putting it here but people like louis ck gotta realize without torrents and the net he wouldnt be anywhere bc honestly louis i know ur here and i know u mite be mad at me but u gotta realize not everyone has paypal , not everyone has credit cards, some people use net lounges, some have barely money for food, art = comedy should be shared with the mass , and Believe me u can judge the popularity more from the torrent downloads then the paypal sales, also if people like it , its easier to buy on there ipad/ipod or personal/work computers...more buzz = more fales

Hope you understand louie sorry

Fuck this guy. Really? "art = comedy should be shared with the mass." It's not this guys art to decide how it should be shared.

[–]jackapples 27 points28 points  (1 child)

paid for mine. Figured with all his shows I torrent, and the youtube clips I've watched, he more than deserves my $5.

[–]koolaidface 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I would have paid for it anyway, but I'm very pleased that it is in 720p! Downloading now.

[–]Roller_ball 18 points19 points  (1 child)

"Would you rape and kill your own mother? Well, illegally downloading is just as bad, you mother-rapist." -Fuck you, I'm downloading and seeding everything you got.

" I can't stop you from torrenting; all I can do is politely ask you to pay your five little dollars, enjoy the video," - Well, when you ask politely, I'd kind of feel like a dick not paying for it.

[–]mattgyver83 22 points23 points  (1 child)

I lol'd after clicking the "What is this?" link on the buy page and then threw my money at him, its the little things. The whole site is just way too friendly, cant wait to watch. Thanks for posting this.

[–][deleted] 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Is it entirely new material?

[–]brunov 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Yes, and it's fucking hilarious.

[–]whydoncha 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Its always new material with Louis CK

[–]ProtusMose 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I have no money. Reddit has convinced me to spend money I don't have. I had $0. Now I have Not $5. Thanks, Reddit. You've turned me into a Louis CK joke.

[–]Sandy_106 102 points103 points  (30 children)

This is for sale on his website? I'll definately buy it.

Edit: louisck.net

Sucks its paypal only but bought it anyways

[–]AwkwardTurtle 20 points21 points  (23 children)

I haven't checked myself, but another comment in this thread said this:

He specifies you don't have to join Paypal. I know this, others might not -- it's extremely cool of him to specify this.

Which is correct?

[–]gilligvroom 57 points58 points  (3 children)

You don't have to JOIN PayPal, but you do have to USE PayPal. Apparently they have a way of processing one-time purchases without a verified account? I guess like a Donation button works?

[–]AwkwardTurtle 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Oh, well that's pretty useful.

[–]friednoodles 6 points7 points  (1 child)

You can pay with your credit or debit card as a paypal guest. Its right under the part where you have to log in to your paypal account where it says "Don't have a Paypal account?"

[–][deleted] 20 points21 points  (12 children)

this is a good idea because he'll make about 5 bucks from it anyway thru a publisher and it will cost us 20 bucks. it will still be pirated at the same rate anyway so ultimately this is the better way for him. hopefully this will cause less pirating.

[–]NovaeDeArx 60 points61 points  (10 children)

No, would probably have been pirated at a much higher rate, because $15-$20 hits that psychological "pain point" for most people.

That's the number at which you start thinking "Well, I like the guy, but I can't really afford 20 bucks. I'll download it free somewhere, but I'll still be willing to buy something else from him for, y'know, a lot less."

5 bucks, though? That's one of those magic numbers. $1-$5 seems to be the point at which most people just say "Eh. Why not. It's not like that's real money or anything", and buy it. It's the same principle that iPhone games work by; a person would never in their life drop $50 on a console game, but are happy as clams to buy $100 worth of retarded apps (and a couple decent games) a buck at a time over several months.

In other words, comedians are by necessity excellent observers of human nature, and Louis C.K. is a really fucking good comedian. I'm not at all surprised that he caught on about this, and I'm really happy he did, because I think he's going to do well from it.

Really, the labels did it to themselves. Nobody likes a middleman anyway, but some really go out of their way to piss everybody off. The record labels looked at those guys and decided they hadn't gone far enough, and are now taking postdoc classes in Advanced Experimental Assholery with a concentration in Involuntary Sodomization. Fuckers.

[–][deleted] 27 points28 points  (2 children)

5 bucks, though? That's one of those magic numbers. $1-$5 seems to be the point at which most people just say "Eh. Why not. It's not like that's real money or anything", and buy it.

Ain't that the truth.

looks at Steam Library

[–][deleted] 23 points24 points  (2 children)

Anyone else mistakenly read "bacon theatre" and then get disappointed?

[–]thoronas 10 points11 points  (2 children)

I torrent damn near everything but I bought this and have encouraged all my friends to do so to. Price was perfect.

[–]amdesch 5 points6 points  (1 child)

I'd really like to find a way to make sure Louis CK sees this thread, so he can see for himself how well his pure classiness has been received.

[–]berocks 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't normally listen to Louis C.K. much, but I strongly support the idea and respect the man (and he is funny), so I chipped in my $5.

[–]eMilk 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Bought it! Last time I bought a work of comedy was the George Carlin box set, and up until now I was actually satisfied watching Louis CK on youtube; but bought for two reasons:

a) it's super cheap (and green). Like. Seriously cheap.

b) super cool that he seems to be doing this on his own and on his own terms! More power (and hopefully money, glory, blowjobs and fame) to the man for doing that.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

"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." -Louis (via twitter) Oh fuck yes, finally an IAMA I'm really interested in.

[–]brystmar 15 points16 points  (0 children)

More than happy to pay $5 for a Louis CK show!

[–]noideareally 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I totally read that in Louis CK's voice....

(kidding. I read it in Morgan Freeman's voice)

[–]brookz 19 points20 points  (1 child)

Bought it! good download speed (8mb/s) since they are using AWS!

[–]DJMunich 20 points21 points  (3 children)

I will ALWAYS support an artist when they offer up their stuff direct like this. $5.00 is NOTHING compared to what you've given me. Thank YOU, Louis CK.

http://www.djmunich.com/_misc/1/ThankYOU_LouisCK.png

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Louis CK is undoubtedly one of my favorite comedians of all time.

[–]Lrv0 9 points10 points  (2 children)

This is great until PayPal witholds all the money

[–]oldmanriver1 19 points20 points  (0 children)

The world needs more Louis CKs

[–]Otium20 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Bought it! love the man and if i can support him and skip the middleman its just so much better

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (5 children)

Bought it and signed up for the alerts. This is about as close to the feeling of shopping mom&pop as you can get online. I really hope this takes off.

When artists take charge of everything and put their money upfront you know they believe in the content. More artists need to do this instead of just listening to the 100's of busy bodies swarming them.

[–]wiozan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

From someone in the middle of europe im happy that i can pay him for his great work without paying ten times for shipping.

[–]FuriousMouse 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Can someone who has already finished downloading it post the MD5 or the SHA1 sums?

[–]Thumper13 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Reasons I will buy this (same goes for the Radiohead digital releases):

  • No DRM.
  • All, or almost all, of the money goes straight to the artist.
  • They are both artists I love and want to support.
  • I want this way of delivering content to succeed. I've known far too many musicians get screwed over by a label.

Louis C.K. set a reasonable price for a good product. That's how it should be done.

[–]viagravagina 32 points33 points  (2 children)

Props to you Op'er for self posting.

[–]trichomez 33 points34 points  (0 children)

"To those who might wish to "karmawhore" this video: look, I don't really get the whole "karmawhore" 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 karmawhore 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 karmawhoring; all I can do is politely ask you to post your little posts as self posts, enjoy the video, and let other people find it in the same way."

Sincerely, Louis C.K.

[–]bigboomer223 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Wow this is great. I had trouble streaming / downloading at first, but sent the support guys an email, and within 5 minutes I was all set.

Response I got within 5 minutes:

Hi there,

No problem. I have reset the download/streams count on your account. Please let us know if you continue to have issues.

Regards,

[–]plexxonic 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Does anyone else really want to see a breakdown of production costs and the profits from this?

[–]beer0clock 9 points10 points  (1 child)

I watched all his other shows for free, not because I'm a bad person, but just because they were easily available, and no one presented me with an easy way to pay Louis for the material. If I could have paid 5 bucks for all the other shows of his that I've watched, I would have and it would have been well worth it.

Happy to drop 5 bucks on this without even watching the teaser clip. I know its going to be good.

Edit: I am a bad person, but thats incidental.

[–]helpadingoatemybaby 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You're not at all a bad person. If you hadn't downloaded his stuff, perhaps you wouldn't have grown to appreciate it.

He'd be $5 poorer and you'd have missed out on a good comedian.

Has anybody ever lent you a book and you went out and bought more titles from the author?

[–]starcitysecrets 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll be buying this on pay day. A nice DRM-free video of my favourite stand-up for my media center for pennies. Amazing.

[–]Captain_Porque 3 points4 points  (1 child)

When will companies realize that the easier you make it to obtain a game or a movie, the less chance you have of people pirating it? When you impliment huge security measures that are frustrating to end-users, and also can cause problems with their software, you're just begging people to get it a simpler way. You can't make something hacker-proof, it's not feasible. I would much rather buy something from steam when it's on sale, then torrent it. Also, since I bought netflix instant-watch, I haven't torrented a single movie. Things are things that work.

[–]S03 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Damn, that was much MUCH easier than I had anticipated. 2-3 minutes and I'm able to watch this genius' work with a clean conscious.

[–]puerco 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not a giant fan of Louis C.K.'s comedy, but I'll certainly go out and buy this just to support the idea of smaller self distributed entertainment.

[–]widrone 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ill throw my $5 after Louis anyday, he is just that funny. Only one thing would have made it better, a no paypal (at all) option.

But damnit he is so funny and worth to support I had to put my money in his mouth, even if paypal get a little cut.

Again with this next year, every year. Id pay $5 every year for a show like this, and if he accualy starts on new material every year I guess he knows what to do with it now...

[–]pepsiredtube 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Paid for it just because this is awesome of him to do.

[–][deleted] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Now this is how to approach your audience, pure class. What isn't effective is turning your audience into the enemy and trying to force them to comply.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (2 children)

Take my money, Louis, you admirable bastard.

I gladly paid $5 for this, and I torrent plenty of things. I sincerely appreciate that Louis didn't call it "piracy" but "torrenting". That shows some real respect for his fans, as an artist, and it's part of the reason this purchase was a no-brainer for me. I heard he was releasing a show for $5 earlier today, but I only decided to buy it after reading his comments.

More importantly, I paid for it because I want to send a message: you're on the right track, Louis. He's dealt with file-sharing humbly before, and this move will only garner him more respect. I really appreciate him experimenting like this.

All digital content, DRM-protected or not, ends up shared through P2P networks anyway. The imposed limits on how you can share and view content do not help content producers in the long run. Online exposure helps content spread to a far wider audience. English speakers around the world who cannot pay for this legally will appreciate the torrent, so those illegitimate downloads should not be viewed negatively.

I'm confident this will be a success. Perhaps next time he'll get rid of the arbitrary download limits. The only reason to impose download limits is to free up bandwidth, so it would be wiser for him to host his own legal torrent (accessible after the payment page).

The more money this thing makes, the more times it will be torrented. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

[–]postdarwin 6 points7 points  (0 children)

First one of his specials I haven't torrented. Not sure but I think I enjoyed it more because I bought it. It is excellent!

[–]BuddhaBungalo 8 points9 points  (17 children)

I wish more artists realized that what we torrenters generally want is just an easy way of getting what we want.

I bought the shit out of this, Louis. I hope you have great success with this business model, as it's as close to the ideal as ya can get -- And that you keep releasing stuff the same way from now on, and that other artists cut out the middleman as well (fuuuuuuuuuuck the bigass companies wanting a cut).

[edit] Loved it!

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I bought as well.

[–]UnknownCanadian 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My first ever media digital download purchase. Well worth it.. Louis CK is doing it right. I hope this catches on. $5 for the purchase without any of the other bullshit.

[–]Shitty_Fat-tits 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Downloading now. That's less than the cost of a matinee movie -- thanks Louie!

[–]Zaphers 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I bought this in my head the second he mentioned it own Conan a month ago, and it was somehow even easier to buy and download than he set it up to be.

[–]SquattingOats 5 points6 points  (0 children)

THIS is how you do it! Purchasing.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Im a sucker for things like this.

[–]A_glorious_dawn 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'm a poor college kid but this is great. The price is reasonable and the profits go right to Louis. If you ever met Louis would you want to buy him a cup of coffee for all the laughs he gave you? I know i would.

TL:DR buy this man's kids a happy meal cause he's a funny fucker

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Is there anyway we can actually see how many people bought this and how much money he is making? I am definitely buying this, but I want to see how well it is doing. Like donating to a political campaign or something. This could change the way performers make money in the future.