
Aziz Ansari releases DRM-free standup special for $5 - switz
http://azizansari.com/
======
untog
It'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.

~~~
spindritf
It has begun quite a while ago with podcasts. Adam Carolla runs a whole
podcast production shop in addition to his own hugely popular show and even
some spin-offs, then there's the Nerdist (same thing), Joe Rogan has a popular
show, Doug Benson, Bill Burr and many others.

Comedians just seem more... entrepreneurial. It would be interesting whether
it's because there's less structure (existing or required) in the comedy
world, or because comedy attracts more independent performers.

~~~
untog
There's probably a lot to be said for comedians generally acting alone or in
pairs. Even when you get a group of four together you're considerably less
flexible.

~~~
Nrsolis
I did stand-up comedy for a while. Allow me to offer my own experience about
the entrepreneurial streak you're seeing from the comedy sector:

1\. As a comedian, you have no choice BUT to get creative. Nobody is going to
give you stage time as a no-name comic so your choices are either (booked)
open mics or starting your own show.

2\. There isn't an "agent" culture for comics like there is for bands or
actors. You write your own material. You're alone on stage. You're alone every
step of the way.

3\. The money stinks as a comic. I can remember being paid for a show in food.
FOOD. And there were limits on what I could order. At a mexican restaurant.
Since there isn't a lot of money in comedy shows, every dollar you spend on
getting to/from a show or paid to someone to help you book a show is almost a
eat-or-pay-rent type of decision. If you go to a comedy show, buy a CD from
the comic after the show. It's likely that 5 CD's sold puts more money in the
pocket of the comic than whatever they earned from the club.

4\. Finding another comic to share expenses is almost a losing proposition
from the start. Unless you're on stage together as part of an act, it's
impossible. Only headline acts can bring their own opener/feature and you
aren't a headline act.

SO, to sum up, the money stinks in comedy, you can't easily achieve scale, and
you need to be your own writer/agent/booker/show-runner to make a living.

~~~
blafro
"The money stinks as a comic" A classic case of oversupply perhaps. Far too
people quitting their day jobs to do stand-up full-time because someone in the
office laughed at their jokes.

~~~
seanalltogether
Everyone learns to perfect their craft through constant failure.
Musicians/artists have the luxury of failing over and over while in the
isolation of their bedroom. Comics have no choice but to fail repeatedly in
front of a live audience, and nobody wants to pay you while you're learning to
fail.

~~~
Nrsolis
The common wisdom for comics learning is that your first 100 sets don't count.
You basically count as a win any time you are able to stay onstage for the
required amount of time.

To paraphrase: your first 100 jumps off the board count if you hit water.

------
rkudeshi
I 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.

~~~
liber8
I 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_fox...](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/number_1/2005/04/jeff_foxworthy.html)

~~~
rmason
I'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?

~~~
Macca
I'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.

------
cfinke
From 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
The 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
I'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
This 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
On 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.

------
mapgrep
"I've deliberately hired non-Indian people to run the tech support stuff as to
buck stereotypes"

<http://azizansari.com/faq>

------
themstheones
Aziz 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
Is 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
It seems like youtube or vimeo is missing a really big opportunity here.

~~~
mikecane
Why 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.

~~~
vibrunazo
If you set your video to unlisted on youtube (only those with links can see
it), then setup a paypal/google wallet account that automatically mails the
link when someone pays you. Then all you'll be paying for is the paypal/google
wallet fee.

Wouldn't have a sexy landing page. But would also save ~ $200k (how much Loius
CK said he payed for his website).

~~~
iscrewyou
But once that link is online, anyone can reach to it. Even the people who
didn't pay for it. Correct me if I'm wrong. They need a link generator for
every payment. Or have the video show up in my not yet developed "Paid Videos"
section on my youtube profile.

~~~
vibrunazo
I would need to share my link with someone else. Just like I can share the non
DRM video I downloaded from Loius CK. The whole concept is that people will
rather pay for it even if they can get it for free, if they think it's worth
it. And it has been working so far.

So you shoulnd't need to create artificial blocks to try to stop people from
pirating. I mean, look at the humble bundle, you can just click that you don't
want to pay for and download the games. But people pay anyway and they make
millions off it. So why would you create artificial blocks that pisses people
off?

<http://www.humblebundle.com/>

------
sirch
If 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.

------
bearwithclaws
This 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
Probably 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.

------
caublestone
$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!

------
veyron
I'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.

------
wdewind
I 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
I 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.

------
bksenior
This 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
>>>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
Agreed 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
>>>Tony Robbins is known, but apparently not enough to float a primetime
television show.

Which actually surprised me, given his infomercials made his fame.

------
kin
Everyone 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?

------
webmat
Haha! Never heard of him before, but I'm buying based solely on this:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b92vAucJg2Y> (36 seconds)

~~~
lflux
Never heard of him either but looks like my flight tomorrow just got less
boring

------
dangrossman
I 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
>>>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
So can any payment processor, direct or third party. Right up to the top, with
Visa and MasterCard declining to process for Wikileaks. Your point?

~~~
mikecane
Wikileaks is not content. That's more political than anything else, with the
Patriot Act used to threaten the processors.

~~~
DrCatbox
Sounds like a good idea, lets stop all transactions going to any organization
that might have political goals.

------
MatthewPhillips
Some startup needs to aggregate, give cloud storage, and iPad/roku/boxee apps
for these things.

~~~
bad_user
You 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.

~~~
mistercow
Eliminating 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
You'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.

~~~
mistercow
I did not say that iTunes was the answer. I said that a startup that offers
inexpensive distribution services to entertainers and artists using this low-
price, no-DRM model could be the answer.

------
charlieok
It'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?

~~~
jgroome
If 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
Cool, 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/131...](http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-
live/video/comedy-tour/1313758) )

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.

------
iscrewyou
Fully support the artist and the idea. Gave them my $5. I won't have starbucks
tomorrow.

------
kalleboo
Why 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(?)

------
username3
Can I borrow someone's copy when you're finished with it?

Update: <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
This 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.

------
sandis
I 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>).

------
thehodge
Interesting note in the terms of service (<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
Including this thread. Oh my.

------
RugerRedhawk
Much better. Thank you, Aziz.

------
jarin
I just put together a directory of these $5 specials:
<http://www.comedyspecials.org>

If people think it's a good idea I'll add a bunch of other fancy stuff :)

------
speg
Bah, 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.

------
sirwanqutbi
Why 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.

------
ssebro
Ok - so we know there's demand from top-level talent. Who's going to make it
into a platform?

------
nachteilig
Can anyone confirm the format? I'd like to toss him $5, but only if I can play
it on my iPad.

~~~
thomasknowles
DRM 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.

------
Brajeshwar
Never heard or seen this guy's act but bought it. Love to support such
creative gesture.

------
larrik
Heh, am I the only one who actually WENT to that tour?

~~~
EvilTrout
No! I saw it here in Toronto and it was hilarious.

Just bought it for $5 to re-watch!

------
n0tjb
Louis CK did it first, but I'm glad Aziz followed!

------
joejohnson
That's great that you can watch a clip on the website! I like Aziz Ansari.

------
paulhauggis
I 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
Why do you think that? Any reason other than the classic idealized economic
model of humans as heartless, brainless utility maximizers?

~~~
alan_cx
Does there need to be another reason?

------
kwamenum86
Normally, 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
Why are you a huge Aziz detractor? First time I heard of this Aziz guy.
Watched the preview, enjoyed it.

~~~
jrockway
I'm guessing he's confusing him for the character he plays on Parks and
Recreation.

~~~
kwamenum86
Uh 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.

------
Produce
Now all he needs to do is something funny.

