Comedian Louis CK started a trend among his peers last December when he asked fans to pay $5 to download a high-quality version of his latest show. The plan worked, and he made over a million bucks on the deal. Now he’s innovating how he sells tickets. Tickets for his shows will now be available only through his site. CK writes:
Making my shows affordable has always been my goal but two things have always worked against that. High ticket charges and ticket re-sellers marking up the prices. Some ticketing services charge more than 40% over the ticket price and, ironically, the lower I’ve made my ticket prices, the more scalpers have bought them up, so the more fans have paid for a lot of my tickets.
So now he’s bypassing ticket seller fees for his upcoming tour and charging a flat $45 for every show on his next tour. He says he’s covering the tax, so he makes more or less, depending on the state. If you buy tickets, you also agree not to sell them to someone else for a higher price, so scalpers beware. Again from CK’s website:
[Y]ou’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). this is something I intend to enforce.
Go get ‘em Louie.
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