英语故事:四天怎样狂赚20万美元

Comedian Louis CK said on Tuesday that he had taken in $500,000 in less than three days from selling his latest standup special directly to the public at $5 a pop. This should make media companies nervous because this is the future — and increasingly, the present — of media distribution. Remember all that stuff people were saying 15 years ago about the Internet's capacity for disintermediation? It's all coming true now.

本周二，喜剧演员路易斯·C·K表示，他将自己最新的单人表演特别节目视频以每部5美元的价格，直接卖给公众。不到3天，销售收入就高达50万美元。媒体公司着实应该为这一现象感到寝食难安，因为这不仅是媒体发行的未来发展趋势，也正日益成为现实。各位是否还记得，15年前，人们曾大谈特谈互联网将成为重要的赚钱工具？现在，转眼之间一切已经成真。

Here's the thing about media companies: they have trouble with edge. That's why local newspapers often churn out inoffensive mush. It's why "local" commercial radio sounds precisely the same in Birmingham, Ala. as it does in Berkeley, Calif. And it's why a brilliant comedian like Louis CK couldn't make it on network television despite two attempts: network executives filed his edges completely away, even though people like him precisely for his edges.

媒体公司的现状是：他们毫无个性可言。正因如此，地方报纸才会乘虚而入，大量刊登无伤大雅的煽情作品；出于同样的原因，阿拉巴马州伯明翰市的“地方”商业广播与加里福尼亚州伯克利市的商业广播听起来同样如出一辙；而且，路易斯·C·K这样杰出的喜剧演员根本无法在网络电视上出人头地。事实上，公众对他钟爱有加就是因为他的表演特点，但在网络高管们的管理之下，其特点已荡然无存。

Even auteur-friendly outlets like Time Warner's (TWX) HBO act as filters between artist and audience. In that case, much of the downside comes on the business end. Louis CK told Terry Gross on Fresh Air this week that with traditional comedy specials, he gets his fee, but never a cut of the aftermarket, where the real money is made. After the special airs, he said, "then they put it on video, you know, on iTunes (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX) and DVD, and then they go try to make a profit with it. You're supposed to participate in that profit, but I've never seen a check from a comedy special. They're just — it's never — it never ends up being that."

即使时代华纳集团（Time Warner）旗下的家庭影院频道（HBO）等倾向于个性导演的市场，实际上也充当着艺术家和观众之间的过滤器。因此，从生意的角度说，它导致了许多弊端。路易斯·C·K本周对《新鲜空气节目》【Fresh Air，美国全国公共广播电台（NPR）时长一小时的谈话节目——译注】主持人特里??格罗斯表示，在传统的喜剧特别节目管理模式下，他只能拿到出场费，但分不到一分钱的销售利润，而后者才是大头。他说，特别节目播出后：“他们（媒体公司）会通过视频、iTunes、Netflix、以及DVD等渠道进行再传播，从中赢利。我本应分得一部分利润，但我从未收到过喜剧特别节目剧组寄来的任何支票。向来如此，那样的事从来没发生过。”

Here, it's all that. On Wednesday morning, the comedian tweeted that sales of the new special had reached 130,000 downloads, for a gross of $650,000. On his Web site, he broke down the finances: the cost of producing the six-camera shoot and renting the Beacon Theater was basically covered by ticket sales (he directed the thing himself and edited the video — which looks as good as any "professionally" produced special). Expenses associated with distributing the video were minimal — there is a near-zero marginal cost for each video sold. And unlike traditional media, very little in the way of fixed costs. No big marketing expenses, no focus groups, no paying media-company middlemen to do ... whatever it is they do. (So far, he's netted about $200,000.)

但是这一次，一个子儿也不少。周三上午，这名喜剧演员在Twitter上称，其最新特别节目的下载量已突破13万大关，总收入为65万美元。在其个人网站上，路易斯·C·K还对相应的资金情况进行了分解：制作节目共动用了6部摄影机，还租用了灯塔剧院（Beacon Theater），而演出门票销售收入基本可以冲抵制作费和场地租赁费等成本（节目由他本人自导自演，视频由其自行编辑，但水准堪与任何“专业公司”制作的特别节目媲美）。与视频销售相关的费用微乎其微：每个视频的销售边际成本几乎为零。此外，不同于传统媒体销售，这里得固定成本也少之又少。这种销售模式无需庞大的营销开支；无需专业团队；亦无需支付媒体公司的经纪费，不管他们到底能做些什么。（迄今，他已经净赚近20万美元。）

"If the trend continues with sales on this video," he wrote, "my goal is that I can reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or tickets to my tours, I'll do it here and I'll continue to follow the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not overmarketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as possible in the transaction."

“如果该视频的销量能够保持这种增长的势头，”他写道：“我的目标是：无论将来我要向观众销售任何东西，不管是视频、演出光碟、还是演出门票，我都将在网上销售。而且我将继续沿用现在的销售模式，将价格尽可能降至最低，绝不想方设法向你们兜售产品。在你们和我之间的交易中，环节越少越好。”

He also made the video DRM-free. He was worried about piracy, and he's been pleading with his fans to not put the video on bittorrent sites. Of course, it was pirated within minutes, which might be cutting into sales a bit. But with a $5 price point, the incentive to download pirated copies is almost nil. True fans will pay it and, given how successful the enterprise has been for all concerned, piracy can be seen as simply a cost of doing business rather than the Armageddon the media industry sees.

而且，他对这次的视频未使用任何数字权利管理（DRM）技术。他曾担心会出现盗版，而且他自始至终恳求粉丝们不要将该视频放到BT站点上。不出所料，该视频上传后不出几分钟就遭遇了盗版，这有可能会对销量产生些许影响。但是，由于视频下载费用只有5美元，几乎没人费神去下载盗版内容。真正的粉丝宁愿付费下载。而且，由于其销售模式从各方面而言都取得了极大的成功，盗版行为会被视为费力不讨好，而非媒体行业眼中的世纪末大决战。

Most important to Louis and his fans, though, is this: "I got to do exactly the show I wanted, and exactly the show you wanted." Indeed, this might be the funniest hour of standup Louis CK has ever done.

但是，对路易斯及其粉丝而言，最重要的问题是：“我可以完全按我自己的意愿和你们的希望去做节目。”确实如此，这期特别节目有可能是路易斯·C·K有史以来完成的最有趣的一小时单人喜剧表演。

Of course, it helps that Louis was — thanks in part to big media companies — already famous. The funniest comedian in the world couldn't have done something like this on such a scale if he or she were unknown. And standup specials are one thing — produced television is something else. Even Louis needs a network like FX to finance production and distribution of his sitcom, Louie, though it should be noted that it's done on the cheap, and the network lets Louis do basically whatever he wants. He demanded that freedom going in, and the show is successful for that reason.

一定程度上得益于大型媒体公司的宣传，路易斯本来就已经名扬四海，这无疑有助于此种销售模式取得成功。即使某人拥有世界上最杰出的滑稽表演天赋，如果他/她只是无名小卒的话，也不可能取得如此规模的销售成功。完成单人喜剧表演是一回事，而制作电视节目则完全是另一回事。即使路易斯这样的名演员，也需要FX等网络出资制作并销售其情景喜剧《路易》（Louie），尽管我们需要强调指出，该剧制作成本低廉，而且FX网络基本上允许路易斯随心所欲地进行表演。他要求拥有表演上的自由度，而这恰是该剧成功的关键所在。

Media companies will be around for a long time to come, to develop talent and distribute product (though the Internet eating into that part of the business, too — just look at the success of comedy podcasts by relative unknowns). But the fact that no big companies were involved in this should give pause to all media executives who think they know better than performers what audiences want, and how much they're willing to pay to get it.

媒体公司在未来很长一段时间内仍将继续存在，继续挖掘人才并销售产品（尽管互联网已开始侵蚀这块业务；这一点，看看那些相对无名的演员们上传的喜剧播客所取得的成功，便可略知一二）。但是，这些成功与任何一家大型媒体公司都没有关系。所有认为自己比演艺界人士更了解观众需求，更了解观众愿意为演出支付多少费用的媒体公司高管们都应该停下来，好好想想。