英語故事:四天怎樣狂賺20萬美元

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.

本週二，喜劇演員路易斯·C·K表示，他將自己最新的單人表演特別節目視頻以每部5美元的價格，直接賣給公衆。不到3天，銷售收入就高達50萬美元。媒體公司着實應該爲這一現象感到寢食難安，因爲這不僅是媒體發行的未來發展趨勢，也正日益成爲現實。各位是否還記得，15年前，人們曾大談特談互聯網將成爲重要的賺錢工具？現在，轉眼之間一切已經成真。

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.

媒體公司的現狀是：他們毫無個性可言。正因如此，地方報紙纔會乘虛而入，大量刊登無傷大雅的煽情作品；出於同樣的原因，阿拉巴馬州伯明翰市的“地方”商業廣播與加里福尼亞州伯克利市的商業廣播聽起來同樣如出一轍；而且，路易斯·C·K這樣傑出的喜劇演員根本無法在網絡電視上出人頭地。事實上，公衆對他鐘愛有加就是因爲他的表演特點，但在網絡高管們的管理之下，其特點已蕩然無存。

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."

即使時代華納集團（Time Warner）旗下的家庭影院頻道（HBO）等傾向於個性導演的市場，實際上也充當着藝術家和觀衆之間的過濾器。因此，從生意的角度說，它導致了許多弊端。路易斯·C·K本週對《新鮮空氣節目》【Fresh Air，美國全國公共廣播電臺（NPR）時長一小時的談話節目——譯註】主持人特里??格羅斯表示，在傳統的喜劇特別節目管理模式下，他只能拿到出場費，但分不到一分錢的銷售利潤，而後者纔是大頭。他說，特別節目播出後：“他們（媒體公司）會通過視頻、iTunes、Netflix、以及DVD等渠道進行再傳播，從中贏利。我本應分得一部分利潤，但我從未收到過喜劇特別節目劇組寄來的任何支票。向來如此，那樣的事從來沒發生過。”

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.)

但是這一次，一個子兒也不少。週三上午，這名喜劇演員在Twitter上稱，其最新特別節目的下載量已突破13萬大關，總收入爲65萬美元。在其個人網站上，路易斯·C·K還對相應的資金情況進行了分解：製作節目共動用了6部攝影機，還租用了燈塔劇院（Beacon Theater），而演出門票銷售收入基本可以衝抵制作費和場地租賃費等成本（節目由他本人自導自演，視頻由其自行編輯，但水準堪與任何“專業公司”製作的特別節目媲美）。與視頻銷售相關的費用微乎其微：每個視頻的銷售邊際成本幾乎爲零。此外，不同於傳統媒體銷售，這裏得固定成本也少之又少。這種銷售模式無需龐大的營銷開支；無需專業團隊；亦無需支付媒體公司的經紀費，不管他們到底能做些什麼。（迄今，他已經淨賺近20萬美元。）

"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."

“如果該視頻的銷量能夠保持這種增長的勢頭，”他寫道：“我的目標是：無論將來我要向觀衆銷售任何東西，不管是視頻、演出光碟、還是演出門票，我都將在網上銷售。而且我將繼續沿用現在的銷售模式，將價格儘可能降至最低，絕不想方設法向你們兜售產品。在你們和我之間的交易中，環節越少越好。”

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，他對這次的視頻未使用任何數字權利管理（DRM）技術。他曾擔心會出現盜版，而且他自始至終懇求粉絲們不要將該視頻放到BT站點上。不出所料，該視頻上傳後不出幾分鐘就遭遇了盜版，這有可能會對銷量產生些許影響。但是，由於視頻下載費用只有5美元，幾乎沒人費神去下載盜版內容。真正的粉絲寧願付費下載。而且，由於其銷售模式從各方面而言都取得了極大的成功，盜版行爲會被視爲費力不討好，而非媒體行業眼中的世紀末大決戰。

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，對路易斯及其粉絲而言，最重要的問題是：“我可以完全按我自己的意願和你們的希望去做節目。”確實如此，這期特別節目有可能是路易斯·C·K有史以來完成的最有趣的一小時單人喜劇表演。

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.

一定程度上得益於大型媒體公司的宣傳，路易斯本來就已經名揚四海，這無疑有助於此種銷售模式取得成功。即使某人擁有世界上最傑出的滑稽表演天賦，如果他/她只是無名小卒的話，也不可能取得如此規模的銷售成功。完成單人喜劇表演是一回事，而製作電視節目則完全是另一回事。即使路易斯這樣的名演員，也需要FX等網絡出資製作並銷售其情景喜劇《路易》（Louie），儘管我們需要強調指出，該劇製作成本低廉，而且FX網絡基本上允許路易斯隨心所欲地進行表演。他要求擁有表演上的自由度，而這恰是該劇成功的關鍵所在。

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.

媒體公司在未來很長一段時間內仍將繼續存在，繼續挖掘人才並銷售產品（儘管互聯網已開始侵蝕這塊業務；這一點，看看那些相對無名的演員們上傳的喜劇播客所取得的成功，便可略知一二）。但是，這些成功與任何一家大型媒體公司都沒有關係。所有認爲自己比演藝界人士更瞭解觀衆需求，更瞭解觀衆願意爲演出支付多少費用的媒體公司高管們都應該停下來，好好想想。