Monty Python's Meaning Of Free: The Holy Grail Of Massively Increased Sales
from the and-that-is-the-speed-of-an-unladen-swallow dept
Last year, we wrote about Monty Python's decision to put all its content online for free hoping that would drive people to buy more of its scarce goods -- such as DVDs. And, as a bunch of you have submitted, it appears to have worked wonders. Monty Pyton's DVD sales jumped an astounding 23,000% and are now the number 2 best selling item in the Movies & TV category on Amazon.com. Who was it that said "you can't compete with free" again?
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Filed Under: business models, monty python, scarce goods, videos, youtube
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Last year?
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Re: Last year?
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Re: Last year?
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Re: Re: Last year?
You must be that cutup who says "See you next year!" right before the New Year's Day holiday ever year. That never gets old.
*sigh*
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Eric Flint is 100% right.
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Re:
Duh, 23,000% less from what they are presently!
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"monty python were already world famous this doesn't prove that free works for unknown entertainers"
Also, as a side note, I'm amazed that sales increased, simply because of who monty python are. I would've honestly figured that anyone who would have bought their DVDs in the first place would have owned the whole collection already.
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Re:
First of all, you might be surprised as to how many people there are who are unfamiliar with the original Python TV shows. Sure, most people know who John Cleese is, and a lot of people have seen the Holy Grail. But, the original TV series? Not as many as you'd think.
While Monty Python as a brand are world famous, younger people wouldn't have had the regular exposure that older people had access to, and what there is was probably buried under 300 other channels of new and repeated material. Giving a new outlet for the material ensures that a new audience (who might not watch broadcast TV to begin with) become familiar with, and develop a taste for, their shows. In addition, people who hadn't thought about Python for years may stumble across the clips, be reminded of how much they like them, and then go out and buy DVDs they'd previously not considered.
It's the same old argument that's regularly put forward here - no exposure = no sales. Favourable exposure, even if free-of-charge, can generate sales and profit as long as the business model's set up properly and the material's good. Both are true here, so DVDs sell and everyone's happy.
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This is real easy. They're actually getting new people interested in their material. People who didn't watch Flying Circus on TV or their movies, because they were not even born when those first occurred.
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References?
I looked on amazon.com's best seller list for movies and tv (http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dvd/ref=sv_d_3) and Monty Python isn't in the top 25.
Perhaps I'm looking at the wrong thing, if so, can someone point me to the real data? If not, it seems that this is based only on hearsay...
(yeah, I like to check my sources... and yeah, I'm a big fan of successful free business models and I like to be able to back my examples with facts not hearsay...)
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Re: References?
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Re: References?
Either way, the original source for the 23,000 figure would appear to be Mashable rather than Amazon, and it's unclear where they got the figure from... Yeah, confirmed figures would be nice but the DVD are obviously selling either way.
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???
23,000 percent of what? What were the initial sales?"
Lets say that they only sold 2 DVD's in December. SO sales increased from 2 DVD's to 46,000. Even at that small number of initial, 46,000 in one month is nothing to sneeze at. So essentially it doesn't matter. The number is still impressive even if it was 23,000% of 2.
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Re: ???
Let's go back to your example, initial sales of 2 dvds.
A 23,000 percent increase would mean that 462 dvds were sold in the next period. Certainly attainable. Not quite as impressive as your calculation.
23,000 percent means 230 times as many, not 23,000 times as many.
A 100 percent increase in sales means that sales have doubled.
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Re: ???
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Not all of Python content
Whilst this is a good example of someone providing some of their content for free in order to increase sales of the rest, I feel I have to point out it is not an example of someone making all of their content available for free and making money from scarce goods.
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Generation gap
Of course nothing would have happened if they didn't have a good product. You might not be able to beat free, but you can use it to make quality pay.
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Re: Generation gap
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Re: Re: Generation gap
I dare say that the majority of people under 25 wouldn't know all the sketches. Either way, who cares whether they're exposed to Python through PBS or YouTube as long as they like it?
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Although this is sounds great...
Oh and they are number one and two and three here...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dvd/403940/ref=pd_ts_d_nav
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2nd? Really?
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Mike....
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Accounting
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made-up story?
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What do Monty Python and Trent Reznor (NIN) have in common?
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/23/monty-pythons-free-w.html
“We’re letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there! But we want something in return. None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.”
And you know what? Despite the entertainment industry’s constant cries about how bad they’re doing, it works. As we wrote yesterday, Monty Python’s DVDs climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.
http://www.nin.com/
The wealth of live tour footage that recently surfaced was released with the hope that fans will come together to edit a wide variety of video content, from music videos to full DVDs. Several different projects to this effect are already underway, and we've created a new forum to help everyone keep organized.
In the new forum you can find downloads of materials, seek out others who may have footage of their own, and join groups of fans who are working on various editing projects. And if you just want to view the results, keep an eye on the nin.com video galleries - particularly Victoria, Portland, Sacramento, and the fan video gallery.
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I'd love to see this quantified differently
I'd love to see these quantified differently; but following the links doesn't appear to shed any light on it. What does number 2 on Amazon.com mean in terms of units sold or dollars profit? How were other avenues of sale affected? What were sales before?
Does the increase relate directly to units sold? Or does it relate to sales rank increase?
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Reissued content
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Re: Reissued content
What is your basis for saying "New artists without any recognition should not expect a similar response"? Here at techdirt.com there are many many examples that disproves your statement. Do you have any examples to back up your claim?
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God, exactly where is it written that the world needs only one business model?! Who cares if their plan does not work for you? Microsoft's business model does not work for GNU-Linux and vice versa. Does that mean either should give up?!
And, unless you happen to be as talented as the cast of Monty Python, I would strongly guess that their current plan would not work for you.
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Re: Jeffry v. Ima
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PAID!
I know its "kewl" to be "hip" by using trendy spellings for everything, but come on! Get just a LITTLE education and spell common fricking words right. Or put them in quotes so we KNOW you are "kewl" and doing it on purpose.
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Re: PAID!
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Re: PAID!
We loose the meaning of language when are people use the wrong words. I have lose change in my pocket.
You should losely tie the knot around the ball so you don't loose it. Then you can untie it better because it was lose.
When hour people going to fix are problems? Can we all don't care no more?
Is it so annoying to read what I right?
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Re: Re: PAID!
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money
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