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Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5
- rkudeshi 15y agoI 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.
- jonnathanson 15y agoAziz 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.
- tdoggette 15y agoI 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.
- Trufa 15y agoI really really hope this trend catches on!
- rokhayakebe 15y agoPlus you have to like the "freemium" model he did with the preview.
- lukeschlather 15y agoThere 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.
- bsphil 15y agoI 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.
- timdorr 15y agoConsidering he sold 200,000 copies of his video in 12 days, I would say he's pretty popular.
- vibrunazo 15y agoRight 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.
- bsphil 15y agoThat 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.
- nchlswu 15y agoAgreed. 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.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoThere 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.
- liber8 15y agoI 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_foxworthy.html http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/number_1/2005/04/jeff_fox...
- rmason 15y agoI'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?
- 83457 15y agoHe is on the Parks and Rec show which is probably where most know him from.
- Macca 15y agoI'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.
- empika 15y agoLouis 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!
- jmduke 15y agoYou 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'.
- DannoHung 15y agoI 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.
- sirch 15y agoI'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 https://buy.louisck.net/news
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoSome startup needs to aggregate, give cloud storage, and iPad/roku/boxee apps for these things.
- garrydanger 15y agoI really like this new model but it got me thinking about how hard it's going to be for Aziz to push his content to different types of media. Traditionally the labels would handle that (usually incompetently) but for a startup to focus on this niche would be awesome.
- jacobbijani 15y agoThe footer says it's powered by http://VHX.tv http://VHX.tv
- bad_user 15y agoYou mean like iTunes? Eliminating the middleman is the whole point of these people that advertise and sell their DRM-free shows straight from their websites.
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoNot like iTunes, cross platform and open to anyone's business (iTunes won't accept just any content)
- mistercow 15y agoEliminating the middleman is not the point. Avoiding the negative consequences of having a middleman is the point, and eliminating the middleman is merely a means to that end. If you can be a middleman without (or with fewer of) those negative consequences, then you're working toward the same goal.
- delackner 15y agoYou're splitting hairs. Louis CK's special raked in more than a million dollars. The website cost him about 30k to produce. iTunes would have sucked up TEN TIMES that.
- RugerRedhawk 15y agoMuch better. Thank you, Aziz.
- Produce 15y agoNow all he needs to do is something funny.
- untog 15y agoIt's interesting that all this has come from comedians. Perhaps not surprising, given that TV shows are owned by networks, and bands are largely indebted to record labels- I never thought about it before, but a comedian is far more of a "free agent" than anyone else- for instance, Aziz is one of the main stars in a hit NBC comedy (well, as much of a hit as NBC gets these days), but he's free to do stuff like this as much as he wants. I very much doubt a band would be able to get away with that. I've been a fan of Aziz for a long time- I'll be buying.
- trotsky 15y agoRecording artists do solo projects all the time. Stand up doesn't require much in the way of production value.
- waterlesscloud 15y agoI wonder if magicians could do the same. Seems like they could. The live performers with a rep can cover a lot of production cost by selling tickets, then the video income can be mostly gravy.
- beedogs 15y agoNeither does recording music.
- noisebleed 15y agoI'm curious as to why you hold that opinion. It contradicts most things I've witnessed about either artform.
- beedogs 15y agoBecause I've been a part of independent recording sessions with bands who released albums using their own meager funds. It doesn't have to take much money to record and produce a decent-sounding album anymore.
- kwamenum86 15y agoNormally, I'm a huge Aziz detractor but I think this has a shot at being more successful than Louis CK's special. I think Aziz is more popular with children of the Internet.
- bira 15y agoWhy are you a huge Aziz detractor? First time I heard of this Aziz guy. Watched the preview, enjoyed it.
- jrockway 15y agoI'm guessing he's confusing him for the character he plays on Parks and Recreation.
- kwamenum86 15y agoUh no. I've seen Aziz's standup live. I thought it was terrible. But not surprised to see no one else agree - he is really popular with some folks.
- bearwithclaws 15y agoThis is a great trend which I'm sure more artists would follow suit. But it puzzles me why did they build their own digital delivery solution from scratch instead of using something like GumRoad?
- retroafroman 15y agoProbably because none of those startups have serious traction outside of hype in tech circles. Once one big player uses it, it can be seen as legit and others may follow suit.
- joejohnson 15y agoThat's great that you can watch a clip on the website! I like Aziz Ansari.
- paulhauggis 15y agoI will be interested to see the results of this. My prediction is that it's a novelty and the appeal will eventually drop off when the sales do (IE: people torrent it instead of buying)
- InclinedPlane 15y agoWhy do you think that? Any reason other than the classic idealized economic model of humans as heartless, brainless utility maximizers?
- alan_cx 15y agoDoes there need to be another reason?
- themstheones 15y agoAziz Ansari is so funny. I loved him as the fruit vendor who hates Australians on Flight of the Conchords, and his Randy character was pretty much the only good thing about that train wreck Funny People. Nice to see him succeeding via Parks and Recreation and el Internet.
- vibrunazo 15y agoIs anyone here already working on an easy to customize template for these guys to build websites that easily charge for DRM-less shows? I remember last time someone linked to something similar, but they had DRM and draconian payment methods (no paypal etc).
- seanalltogether 15y agoIt seems like youtube or vimeo is missing a really big opportunity here.
- mikecane 15y agoWhy should a comedian have to submit to a behemoth like writers do? To get on iPad or Kindle or Nook, you have to go through their stores and risk rejection or wind up giving them 30% (a fee I do not think is in any way justified just for hosting; they damn well can't market anything, just provide one listing out of jillions). I say more power to the comedians. Submit to no one, share with no one. I wish writers could do the same.
- davidw 15y agoThe odds of being rejected from Amazon's Kindle store are fairly slim. Your writing can be pretty bad; the important thing is that it's not someone else's material.
- mikecane 15y agoYou have not paid attention to what Amazon has done. There was one furious weekend a year or so ago involving books with homosexuality in them. And Amazon recently delisted a bunch of books for content it didn't like in the Romance genre. Amazon does have a mention of "content guidelines" in their submission TOS. But good luck getting anything specific about what those "guidelines" are.
- davidw 15y ago
- iscrewyou 15y agoFully support the artist and the idea. Gave them my $5. I won't have starbucks tomorrow.
- larrik 15y agoHeh, am I the only one who actually WENT to that tour?
- EvilTrout 15y agoNo! I saw it here in Toronto and it was hilarious. Just bought it for $5 to re-watch!
- dangrossman 15y agoI just purchased it. That was simple as possible (enter e-mail in box, redirected to PayPal, redirected to page with stream and download buttons). There's a streaming limit (3 views) and download limit (5 downloads). The download is hosted on Amazon S3 where I'm barely getting 500k/s. The stream and download limits would then limit his delivery costs to ~$1.50 per customer with S3's bandwidth pricing. PayPal is taking out $0.41. He could be getting as little as $3 of each $5 for the special.
- mikecane 15y ago>>>redirected to PayPal Which allowed you to buy it -- for now. See, there's a weak link in that chain. Just two weeks ago there was a huge uproar over PayPal rejecting payments for books they unilaterally and unjustifiably deemed "offensive." And they can do that to any comedian too.
- dangrossman 15y agoSo can any payment processor, direct or third party. Right up to the top, with Visa and MasterCard declining to process for Wikileaks. Your point?
- notatoad 15y agoi think the point is that paypal is much more likely to cut you off (or even run away with your money) than visa or mastercard is.
- mikecane 15y agoWikileaks is not content. That's more political than anything else, with the Patriot Act used to threaten the processors.
- DrCatbox 15y agoSounds like a good idea, lets stop all transactions going to any organization that might have political goals.
- bksenior 15y agoThis is the model of new media for any type of artist. Create enough value that you establish yourself as an expert in whatever your art is and then exploit secondary pursuits. I constantly refer back to Diddy getting famous with music, but also establishing himself as a partying/lifestyle expert and then making a killing on Ciroc. 50 cent did it with vitamin water and fitness, Athletes do it with endorsements. It is the Tony Robbins model. His books didn't make him rich but they allowed him to charge 500k a speaking gig. Your initial art is your marketing that develops your right to charge money for future art.
- mikecane 15y ago>>>It is the Tony Robbins model. His books didn't make him rich but they allowed him to charge 500k a speaking gig. And Robbins failed with Breakthrough on NBC. So not all success is guaranteed even when it seems to be.
- bksenior 15y agoAgreed that success is not guaranteed. The other two factors are context and success expectation. You can't win NBA MVP and expect to successfully go and sell cookware (unless you are known for being a cook outside of the league) it is not what people trust you for. You also need to look at the size of the audience of your accepted expertise. Tony Robbins is known, but apparently not enough to float a primetime television show.
- mikecane 15y ago>>>Tony Robbins is known, but apparently not enough to float a primetime television show. Which actually surprised me, given his infomercials made his fame.
- cfinke 15y agoFrom the confirmation e-mail: "OH SHIITTTT!!!! Thanks for buying my new comedy special!!! THAT $5 IS MINE SON. Just kidding, but seriously it is."
- michaelbuckbee 15y agoThe profanity in the order form was refreshing as well: "Confirm email (Don't Fuck This Up)" I'm guessing they didn't AB Test profane and clean copy on the forms.
- sstrudeau 15y agoI'm also guessing that someone offended by the profanity would likely not be a happy customer. Which highlights an interesting potential limit of A/B testing for conversions. It may take some time after the point of sale to determine whether you've created a happy (and therefor loyal, returning) customer or not. So imagine in this case that profanity is likely to turn away 2 customers but presence of profanity will tilt 1 additional conversion -- so overall conversion rate of non-profane form could be better (2 vs 1 on some margin). But what if the non-profane converts are ultimately dissatisfied with the product whereas the the profane convert is likely to be happy? Perhaps the long term relationship with the latter customer is worth more than the two unhappy customers, even though a naive A/B test would push you to limit profanity for the short term conversion benefit.
- sbov 15y agoThis is something about A/B tests that always bothers me. They always seem to assume that if variation A is best for a proxy stat (signups, views, etc) it's also best for what I'm really interested in (longterm value). I still use them though - not sure there's much you can do about it anyways.
- jplewicke 15y agoOn the other hand, if you can eventually measure long-term value and you can keep track of users over a long enough cycle, then you can eventually run an A/B test on long term value. This depends on accurately tracking users, having a quantifiable way to calculate long-term value, and eliminating other sources of error, but it should be absolutely doable. You can also measure how well your proxy stat does correspond to long-term value and adjust your expectations accordingly.
- bksenior 15y agoThis is the model of new media for any type of artist. Create enough value that you establish yourself as an expert in whatever your art is and then exploit secondary pursuits. I constantly refer back to Diddy getting famous with music, but also establishing himself as a partying/lifestyle expert and then making a killing on Ciroc. 50 cent did it with vitamin water and fitness, Athletes do it with endorsements. It is the Tony Robbins model. His books didn't make him rich but they allowed him to charge 500k a speaking gig. Your initial art is your marketing that develops your right to charge money for future art.
- webmat 15y agoHaha! Never heard of him before, but I'm buying based solely on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b92vAucJg2Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b92vAucJg2Y (36 seconds)
- lflux 15y agoNever heard of him either but looks like my flight tomorrow just got less boring
- nachteilig 15y agoCan anyone confirm the format? I'd like to toss him $5, but only if I can play it on my iPad.
- thomasknowles 15y agoDRM Free: Thomass-MacBook-Pro:~ thomasknowles$ file Downloads/azizansari-dangerouslydelicious-hd.mov.crdownload Downloads/azizansari-dangerouslydelicious-hd.mov.crdownload: ISO Media, Apple QuickTime movie anyone feel free to step up and add anymore info.
- brucehart 15y agoThe download is a QuickTime file (.mov extension).
- nachteilig 15y agoThanks guys!
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- lukifer 15y agoDespite being named .mov and lacking any metadata whatsoever, the file is encoded as a native H.264+AAC in 720p, which syncs just fine via iTunes and plays on an iPhone 4, meaning it should play back on an iPad as well.
- ssebro 15y agoOk - so we know there's demand from top-level talent. Who's going to make it into a platform?
- username3 15y agoCan I borrow someone's copy when you're finished with it? Update: http://azizansari.com/tos http://azizansari.com/tos says, All downloads are for use on one device only. You may keep one backup copy of the digital content downloaded from this site on any digital media of your choice.
- delackner 15y agoThis is hilarious. He is being downvoted for pointing out one of the biggest serious issues with digital content licensing: The problem isn't just the DRM, but also that the licensing agreements usually (always?) destroy the traditional right to resell your book/movie/album when you are sick of it, or just when you would rather that a friend have it (say, when you finish reading a book). Paying say $15 for an ebook that is nontransferrable, when the physical book is ALSO $15, is an absurdity that I can't imagine will stand the test of time. Our entire human history is on the side of the feeling that when you buy something, you can then give that particular thing away to someone else. Current legal and market norms don't serve this basic human instinct yet, and it remains to be seen which shifts first. My money is on humans insisting to keep giving things away to their friends.
- alan_cx 15y agoI assume he simply got "advised" to do that. I wouldn't mind betting that if some one kindly emailed him and explain why that is a problem, he might well see that it is changed. You point if fair though. I dont see why you've been down voted either.
- wdewind 15y agoI just bought it and was redirected to an error page even though the paypal went through, though a few minutes later I received an email with watching/streaming details. Just an FYI for anyone else this may happen to.
- StefanKarpinski 15y agoI paid, received no email at all, then got a support reply the next day (today), which successfully let me log in, but left me with no downloads and no streams. Incredibly shitty UX. Anyone else encounter problems? As someone who bought both this and the Louis CK download, the difference in UX is huge. I wonder to what extent my experience is not unique and to what extent the success of Louis CK's experiment was due to the seamlessness of their website experience. These guys should probably using Stripe; I'm beyond impatience with PayPal.
- veyron 15y agoI'd like to see someone set up a turnkey solution, soup to nuts (i.e. website, paypal or other payment service, content delivery) with some simple pricing model. It would then be easy to standardize in terms of format, TOS, etc.
- sirch 15y agoIf this is your first time hearing of Aziz Ansari and you enjoy his comedy you might also want to check out his show 'Parks and Recreation' on NBC. It's one of the best comedies on TV right now. I'd even say that it is approaching Arrested Development-levels.
- mapgrep 15y ago"I've deliberately hired non-Indian people to run the tech support stuff as to buck stereotypes" http://azizansari.com/faq http://azizansari.com/faq
- kin 15y agoEveryone here keeps saying to turn this into a platform. Though I agree that developers can capitalize on this opportunity, there's a road we can go down that in my opinion may make things too crowded. Yes, it would be great to have a central hub where I can browse through popular comedian's trailer videos and then download my favorite one for $5 DRM free. But, I think that'll just create so much competition between the comedians that they won't see the level of traction that Louis C.K. saw. Then again, it's a tradeoff and you can't really have both can you?
- thehodge 15y agoInteresting note in the terms of service (http://azizansari.com/tos http://azizansari.com/tos) Linking to our site "You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you." That rules out 90% of social media..
- ssmall 15y agoIncluding this thread. Oh my.
- n0tjb 15y agoLouis CK did it first, but I'm glad Aziz followed!
- charlieok 15y agoIt's interesting to compare the economics of comedy vs music. I'm much more likely to enjoy a song the second, third and fourth time I hear it. I might enjoy the second time hearing a joke, but it goes downhill pretty fast after that. I'm guessing this is normal. If a comedian's routine is recorded and widely disseminated, a lot of people might become fans and want to see him/her, but they're probably not going to want to see the same jokes again. The comedian will need to come up with new material. Writing and perfecting a good comedy bit might be comparable in time and effort to writing and perfecting a good song. Anyone know? How do these considerations affect which business model works best for different types of artists online?
- thehodge 15y agoPretty sure this is mostly why DVD's come out at the end of tours or during the middle of a new tour to stop that exact thing happening, they might do a couple of the old gags but mostly it will be fresh material (unless your Peter Kay)
- jgroome 15y agoIf you get a chance, check out "Talking Funny", a very nerdy but informative DVD of conversations between Jerry Seinfeld, Louis CK, Chris Rock, and Ricky Gervais. In it they discuss this very subject. Seinfeld says his method is to repeat material for years before throwing it out. Chris Rock sees his comedy specials schedule as the equivalent of an album ("like Prince"), so every tour he does completely new material. Gervais lands in the middle - enough freshness to keep things interesting but also enough old stuff to keep the crowds happy. Louis CK is constantly changing his act - if I remember correctly he says he rarely keeps a joke for more than a few shows.
- charlieok 15y agoCool, thanks for that. I realize that this isn't going to be a new subject for anyone in an entertainment business. But as a programmer, it's not something I've thought about nearly as much. Tolerance for old material probably varies by audience, too. Those catchphrase comedians get amazing mileage out of unbelievably scant material; enough to become fodder for other comedians. ( http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/comedy-tour/1313758 http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/comedy-tour/131... ) I wonder if these big-splash events where a comedian sells a clip DRM-free for a simple payment might be better suited to comedy than to music, given the more time-sensitive nature of the value of a comedy bit.
- sirwanqutbi 15y agoWhy are people not realising he's doing this as a gesture against DRM as oppose to some kind of business statement. .. he's a comedian.
- speg 15y agoBah, I bought this and tried to view it on an iPad. After a few failed attempts I try on my computer and it says I've used all my downloads? Boo.
- caublestone 15y ago$5 AND DRM Free? Could you imagine...stealing a movie that costs $5 and is DRM free? That'd be like stealing a movie that's $5 and DRM free! There's no other way to complete that analogy because that's the shittiest thing you could ever do!
- jarin 15y agoI just put together a directory of these $5 specials: http://www.comedyspecials.org http://www.comedyspecials.org If people think it's a good idea I'll add a bunch of other fancy stuff :)
- sandis 15y agoI thought that opening was really similar to Louis CK's $5 standup and that grape drink joke - that's Chappelle (around 1:50 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuTjQLfU6Gk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuTjQLfU6Gk).
- Brajeshwar 15y agoNever heard or seen this guy's act but bought it. Love to support such creative gesture.
- kalleboo 15y agoWhy isn't there a standardized self-publish DRM-free platform for this stuff yet? I have lots of time I want to spend distracting myself, but not enough content to fill it without pirating. Got a Rails 500 error after paying, but just refreshing the page got me through. The page has a humans.txt, but it looks like it's just the blank template(?)