英语故事:四天怎样狂赚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。