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News & ArtsSaturday, December 10, 2011
Comedy Louis C.K. Live at The Beacon Theater for $5
Posted by Anthony Hecht on Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 2:45 PM
Starting today, Louis C.K. has made his recent hour-long set at The Beacon Theater available for download or streaming for $5. Go get it.
Get it because he's hilarious, sure, but also get it because he's doing something great here. He's putting his content up himself, for a very fair price, with no DRM or other bullshit, and hoping it works out. If it does, he'll do it again. If he does it again, more comedians and other artists will probably follow. Every time an artist does this kind of thing well*, it's a chink in the armor of the content companies who want everything buried under 10 layers of crappy rights-management software and overpriced because of it.
The show is already all over the torrent sites, of course, but if enough people pony up the $5 it won't matter.
I haven't seen it yet, still downloading, but I'm sure it's good. If it's bad, I'll write another post about how bad it is, but I won't regret spending the $5.
2
Bought it. Absolutely worth it to support a move like this. Especially from someone as funny as Louis CK.
3
Did you guys report about the death of Patrice O'Neil?
He was a truly funny man in the prime of his talent...
He was a truly funny man in the prime of his talent...
4
If you haven't seen it already, check out Louie on FX.
I remember his first attempt at TV (Lucky Louie on HBO in 2006) and, while it had a few good moments, it was mostly a complete mess. It almost seemed like satire... except it wasn't intended to be.
The FX show is a completely different direction and has a lot of unique episodes that break out of the typical comedian/sitcom TV show cliches. I really enjoyed the first season.
Of the things I watch, I'd say the closest thing to compare it to currently on TV is Modern Family, and considering the huge amount of talent fire power behind that show, it's pretty amazing Loue CK's little show on FX can even be held up to it.
I remember his first attempt at TV (Lucky Louie on HBO in 2006) and, while it had a few good moments, it was mostly a complete mess. It almost seemed like satire... except it wasn't intended to be.
The FX show is a completely different direction and has a lot of unique episodes that break out of the typical comedian/sitcom TV show cliches. I really enjoyed the first season.
Of the things I watch, I'd say the closest thing to compare it to currently on TV is Modern Family, and considering the huge amount of talent fire power behind that show, it's pretty amazing Loue CK's little show on FX can even be held up to it.
5
When I started reading this headline, I thought this meant Louis was coming to Seattle. Then I got sad. Then I got happy again. Thanks for the tip!
(downloading now...)
(downloading now...)
6
Downloaded. Dead easy, cheap, and even the download page was funny. For me he wins just by having the "send me other offers" on a default setting of "No, leave me alone forever, you fat idiot.".
I'd like to send him an email congratulating him on the thing, but I can't find an address. Can anyone hook me up?
I'd like to send him an email congratulating him on the thing, but I can't find an address. Can anyone hook me up?
10
@9, no kidding, that was really good. @6, your five bucks is all the congratulations he probably cares to hear. Remember, he told the audience in his opening remarks that if any of them has something to discuss with him, the procedure is to write it on a piece of paper, go out to the lobby, then out to the street and go home and shoot yourself in the head.
11
Yes, it's all over the torrent sites. All you "DRM is evil" zealots keep trying to tell us that people will pay for content, that artists will actually SELL MORE if they don't use DRM. People will be turned on to new music and buy it! Or go out and buy the music (or book or movie) they just downloaded for free Which of course is total, utter bullshit.
How many songs do most people have on their iPods? Thousands, usually. How many of those songs did they pay for? Most often a small fraction.
Yes, DRM is a pain in the ass and often done poorly. But the alternative is rampant pirating. I love Louis CK and will pay for this download and hope this works for him, but it's not a model that is sustainable for most artists. The anti-DRM crowd is full of well-meaning dreamers, hypocrites and selfish pirates.
How many songs do most people have on their iPods? Thousands, usually. How many of those songs did they pay for? Most often a small fraction.
Yes, DRM is a pain in the ass and often done poorly. But the alternative is rampant pirating. I love Louis CK and will pay for this download and hope this works for him, but it's not a model that is sustainable for most artists. The anti-DRM crowd is full of well-meaning dreamers, hypocrites and selfish pirates.
12
@11 - This is absolutely wrong. DRM doesn't stop pirates. If this video had DRM, it would still be all over the torrent sites, because the people who seed those things have countless ways to get around any DRM scheme there is.
Providing a reasonably-priced and easy way to obtain content legally simply lets honest people be honest. iTunes has proven without a doubt that if the content is available at a reasonable price, and it's easy, people will pay for it by the millions.
The goal isn't to stop piracy, it's to have a workable revenue model that accounts for the inevitable piracy, instead of pretending you can come up with some software solution that will stop stealing.
Your argument is a false choice. There will be piracy in any case. DRM doesn't irritate pirates, it irritates the people who want to pay for the content.
Providing a reasonably-priced and easy way to obtain content legally simply lets honest people be honest. iTunes has proven without a doubt that if the content is available at a reasonable price, and it's easy, people will pay for it by the millions.
The goal isn't to stop piracy, it's to have a workable revenue model that accounts for the inevitable piracy, instead of pretending you can come up with some software solution that will stop stealing.
Your argument is a false choice. There will be piracy in any case. DRM doesn't irritate pirates, it irritates the people who want to pay for the content.
13
Downloaders seem to get the point. Click on this link to a usenet indexing site and scroll down and read the comments on this video. http://nzbmatrix.com/nzb-details.php?id=…
14
@11, it is in the torrent sites, but if you look at the comments on those sites, you'll see a lot of them are objecting to the file being uploaded. Plenty are saying that they've bought the file and asking others to do the same, and in many cases these are regulars to the sites. There will be people who download for free no matter how reasonably priced and easy a legal download is, but considering the comments on sites like The Pirate Bay and Reddit, there is very much a market for artists willing to offer a product like Louis did.
15
Can't they use any of the OTHER stadiums in the state designed to hold basketball teams, or better yet, spend THEIR OWN money on these bullshit endeavors instead of expecting taxpayers to fund their games?
16
@11: Most of the songs on my mp3 player that I have not paid for would simply not be on my mp3 player if I hadn't gotten them for free. Concordantly, there is a direct correlation between the ratio of paid-for media on my mp3 player and my ability to pay for media at the time I acquired it that media. When I was in college, I barely had money to pay for electricity, let alone music. Today, I can't remember the last time I fired up filesharing software instead of just paying a buck on Amazon's mp3 market.
I will never even try to argue that I'm not a cheapskate. But time and effort are both more important currencies to me than money, so if someone will charge me a little more than nothing to make something less of a time-consuming pain in the ass, then I'll take it every time.
I will never even try to argue that I'm not a cheapskate. But time and effort are both more important currencies to me than money, so if someone will charge me a little more than nothing to make something less of a time-consuming pain in the ass, then I'll take it every time.
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