I'm going to be offering other things through this site. Would you like to hear about them?
Yes, I'd like to receive further emails about Louis C.K. things.
No, leave me alone forever, you fat idiot.
I clicked yes.
I also opted-in to his mailings, partly because it was opt-in rather than opt-out, and partly because of his tone. He has some great copy for selling comedy videos, and now albums. In the email he sent out about the new audio specials, he had his usual laid back tone, but he also ended with this:
> Okay. that was exhausting. Sorry. I didn't even ask you how you are. How are you? Oh yea? Oh good. That's great. What? Oh man. That's tough. I'm sorry... Oh well that sounds like you handled it well, though. So. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know that's... yeah. Well... Just remember, time will go by and that'll just be on the list of shit that happened to you. You'll be okay. Yeah. Huh?... Oh. Really? HE DID? Oh my GOD! hahaha!! That's CRAZY! No. no. I won't tell him you told me. Of course not. Alright well... uhuh? Oh wow. yeah. Alright well.. I really gotta go. Thanks for listening. I'm glad you're basically okay. Stay in touch.
> your friend,
> Louis C.K.
It's almost like treating your customer like a person and not just a wallet with some flesh hanging off of it helps your cause. It's a novel idea to be sure.
I never managed to convince anyone to try A/B testing a banner ad that literally just said 'BUY OUR SHIT', though.
This is what fighting piracy looks like.
I know it sucks that you can't subscribe to HBO Go without being a cable customer. But for existing HBO users, it's a very, very well done service. The iPad app is gorgeous and well engineered. It has basically every epoisode of every season of every HBO series, all HBO original movies, and as far as I can tell nearly every HBO original documentary, comedy special, etc. And of course all of the movies HBO is currently running in their rotation.
HBO on Cable runs about $13 a month. I'm sure they could sell subscriptions just to Go for $20-25. But HBO wants to be a Cable service, not an Internet service. Nothing wrong with that. They're not luddites trying to avoid technology: they're using it very effectively. They're just using it in the way that suits their business model and philosophy.
HBO on Cable costs $13 plus whatever your basic cable fees, which after "introductory rates" often means $80/mo or more. Granted, you get more than just HBO then, but in the case that you just want HBO and nothing else there is no sanely priced option.
Apparently you forgot your password? Ok, so here's your new one, stupid:
EMAIL: xxxxx@gmail.com
PASSWORD: moron.xxxxxHe is also managing to sell stuff that was from HBO, again, DRM-free and at reasonable price.
So, "a famous guy self publishes on the internet". Does that make it MORE news-worthy? Famous guys have been self-publishing on the internet for a long-long time.
>Also, he's also selling his stuff, without a middleman, DRM-free and with a very decent price.
Like tens of thousands of other artists you mean? They even used to do this pre-internet, e.g. the music tape scene market, or the fanzine market.
I don't get what Louis CK does differently than any other. Famous and non-famous people have done exactly the same things before, from Stephen King and Radiohead to thousands of underground bands...
And if we remove the absolute "no middleman" rule (which is not exactly true in this case, he pays some service for the payment processing for example), and keep it to mean: "no media company/recording company middleman", then any of the tens of thousands of bands/artists that use a "submit to music stores/process payments" middleman TuneCore, CD Baby, etc are doing the same.
The smack-talking personality and humor in his site copy is all icing on the cake, it's the money-making non-DRM sales that's news, relevant, and worth paying attention to.
Limiting number of downloads protects their bandwidth from would be jerks. Protecting their service is important for their customers to have a quality experience. It's fair, and most people will only ever download once. If they for some reason use up all 4 downloads and want more they should e-mail them. Why wouldn't give more if some had a genuinely good reason for using up their downloads?
You get the audio in addition to the video now, whether you buy it now or in the future.
Stand up guy.
Totally worth the money.
I can see the tech aspect about selling DRM free media, alright. But this link goes straight to a site selling MP3s. In my books thats ADVERTISEMENT.
Don't get me wrong, I like Louis CK. But HN is really the wrong platform to exchange random entertainment links. Think about why you like this newsfeed, and help keeping it clean.