When you go DRM-free, sometimes you can be successful in ways you couldn’t have dreamed. A week ago I mentioned comedian Louis C.K.’s experiment in posting a comedy special DRM-free for $5 download or streaming. He’d made just over 110,000 sales in 4 days.
Well, his sales rate has slowed a little, but he’s still surpassed $1 million in total sales in just twelve days, and has a PayPal screenshot to prove it. (Personally, I’d be really reluctant to leave a million dollars in their hands for any longer than I had to.) He’s going to use $250,000 to pay off production costs on the video, split $250,000 into bonuses for his staff, give $280,000 away to a number of charities, and keep $220,000 for himself.
Louis seems to have a pretty good attitude about money:
I never viewed money as being "my money" I always saw it as "The money" It’s a resource. if it pools up around me then it needs to be flushed back out into the system.
If he makes another million, he’s promised to give more of it away.
Anyway, right on Louis! I hope any of his future efforts in this regard are just as successful, and not just because it’s great to see someone else showing it’s possible to make a go of eschewing DRM and trusting his customers.
(Found via Techdirt.)
