Direct Web Distribution: Comedian Sells $4.5 Million in Tickets in 45 Hours
By Rob Scott
July 2, 2012
July 2, 2012
Comedian Louis C.K. announced last week that he had sold 100,000 tickets for his upcoming tour directly to his fans in less than two days via his website.- The comedian, who has been successfully experimenting with distributing his content and stage performances online, decided to bypass major retailers such as Ticketmaster and StubHub because of the 40 percent mark-up often added to the final cost of tickets, reports Digital Trends.
- “Tickets across the board, everywhere, are 45 dollars. That’s what you’ll actually pay,” wrote C.K. “In every case, that will be less than anyone has actually paid to see me (after ticket charges) in about two years and in most cases it’s about half of what you paid last year.”
- “The benefit for me is that I won’t get angry emails from anyone who paid a ton of money to see me due to circumstances out of my control. That makes me VERY happy,” he adds. “The 45 dollars also includes sales tax, which I’m paying for you. So I’m making more or less depending on the state.”
- In a related report, TechCrunch notes that C.K. has also taken steps to thwart scalpers. “You’ll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money),” writes the comedian. “This is something I intend to enforce. There are some other rules you may find annoying but they are meant to prevent someone who has no intention of seeing the show from buying the ticket and just flipping it for twice the price from a thousand miles away.”
- C.K. kick-started direct online distribution in December with the successful release of his performance “Live at the Beacon Theater” for $5 via his website. Other performers such as Jim Gaffigan and Aziz Ansari have since been following his lead.
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