Louis C.K. releases his sales figures

From his website (not a producer, publisher or agency website):

The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we’ve sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again.

My favorite part is that he still owns 100% of his content and doesn’t owe anyone else anything.

Radiohead proved that they don’t need a music label and let the users choose the price that they want to pay They did pretty damn well with this promotion. Trent Reznor has given his music away, sold it himself, and retains the rights to his newer work.

This is a trend that we will continue in the future – mark my words.