It looks like Louis C.K.’s digital distribution revolution is continuing to make waves in the comedy world, as a new website called lolflix has launched this week, offering comedians an online home to host their own material for a fair cut of the profits. According to lolflix, all comedy specials hosted on the website are exclusive to the new service.
Lolflix aims to achieve the same goals as comedians who’ve begun distributing their own material directly to their fans, effectively circumventing big networks that take a chunk of their hard-earned money. So far big name comedians like Louis C.K., Jim Gaffigan, and Aziz Ansari have seen a great deal of success using the novel approach to distribution.
The new service aims to be a venue for smaller comedians who don’t have the dedicated fanbase yet to generate the kind of pull that larger comedians have seen through their personal websites. Downloads through lolflix will be made available for up to $5 per stand-up special payable through PayPal or Amazon Payments, providing DRM-free digital downloads or 48-hour streaming sessions straight to “comedy connoisseurs.”
“We hope that this will prove to be a more streamlined way of doing business,” reads the lolflix FAQ. “We just got tired of playing the old shell game and seeing someone else benefit from our hard work and investment and set out to find a better way.”
Though the creators have a great deal of hope for the ambitious new service, they’re also wary of the obstacles that lie ahead. “Hey we hope it works and if it doesn’t, at least we tried,” they said.
Lolflix currently features over 30 stand up specials from comedians like Tom Arnold and Bill Santiago. Into the future lolflix hopes to become the go-to place for lesser-known comedians looking to distribute their latest stand-up specials.
In yet another move to cut out the middle men, comedian Louis C.K. recently began selling tickets for his upcoming tour exclusively through his personal website, eliminating TicketMaster fees and the harmful scalping market by declaring overpriced tickets irredeemable. At $45 a seat for each show on his tour, C.K. has made more than $6 million in only two weeks.
