Louis C.K. Cuts Out the Middleman; Sells Latest Show for $5

It might not be ground-breaking, but this past weekend comedian Louis C.K. released his latest show, Live at the Beacon Theatre, through his website for a mere $5 USD. This low-cost is attributed to the fact that Louis cut out the middleman and paid for the production himself. Further, he chose to release the show free of DRM – a bold move.

Without DRM, the video is ripe for pirating, and this is something Louis seems to understand well. He has mentioned that he went against advice to include DRM, in effect saving his fans potential hassle. He does however plead that the video not be torrented, as he states on his site:

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.

As DRM is never anything less than a nuisance to those who purchase their digital goods legally, it’s great to see someone like Louis who’s willing to go far enough to give his fans inexpensive content, without restriction, even if there is potential for it to be pirated (and it goes without saying, it will be). Going further, during the purchase, you’ll be able to opt-in for Louis’ mailing-list. But rather than the default option be set to “Yes” like most services, this one is set to “No”. That’s how it should be.

The one caveat is that the purchase has to go through PayPal, although you don’t have to have a PayPal account in order to purchase. In the event you don’t have an account, you can just use the service as a guest and pay with your credit card like any other purchase.

Selling content directly to fans isn’t new, as many musicians have tried their hand at it in the past, but it’s good to see that it’s begun to spread to other content too. And for what it’s worth – the show is very much worth the $5.