January 25, 2009

From Monty Python, A Valuable Lesson in Selling the Product

Just a few months after British comedy troupe Monty Python put all of its material free on youtube, mashable.com is reporting that sales of Monty Python DVDs sold on Amazon, have increased 23,000%. Mashable notes that Monty Python’s DVDs climbed to the #2 spot on Amazon’s Movie’s and TV Bestseller List.

The Python crew knew what they were doing. In launching the youtube channel, they said, “We’re letting you see absolutely everything for free. 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.”

Devindra Hardawar, writing on slashfilm.com, makes an interesting observation about this success:

“Could it be, despite all of the [recording industry’s] clamoring about piracy killing their business, that free and less restrictive content is actually the answer to their woes? We’ve seen other entertainment artists have similar success with free content… Offering a certain amount of content for free (as we see on Hulu, Last.FM, and countless other sites and services) seems like one of the best ways to convince consumers to actually pay for media.”

No comments: