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Free Monty Python Videos on Youtube Lead to 23,000% DVD Sale Increase

Posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 by Devindra Hardawar

Following up on our previous news regarding Monty Python material on iTunes, Mashable is now reporting on a staggering increase of Monty Python DVDs sold on Amazon soon after the Python crew made some of their their more popular material free on Youtube. And by staggering, I mean 23,000% worth. Mashable notes that Monty Python’s DVDs climbed to the #2 spot on Amazon’s Movie’s and TV Bestseller List, and you don’t have to be a genius to follow that the sales were probably influenced by the Amazon links found on all of their Youtube clips.

When launching their massive Youtube effort, Monty Python made their intentions fairly clear:

“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.”

With this news, it seems their “crazy plan” was a success—and why wouldn’t it be? After all, most of their sketch material is tailor made for the typical Youtube viewer, and it’s not as if they would have been better served by a traditional television marketing campaign.

While I’m glad that the Monty Python crew is getting richer (they certainly deserve it), I’m more interested in what this massive success spells for the entertainment industry. Could it be, despite all of the RIAA and MPAA’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, and it seems the music industry is finally wising up to DRM-free music, so it’s not as if the possibility is altogether foreign.

Wired’s Chris Anderson argues this point in a recent cover story, and I would have to agree with him. At this point 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.

All of this points to a simple, yet seemingly elusive, fact: Treating your consumers like criminals may not be the best way to convince them to buy your shit. Just sayin.

(Correction: A kind /Film reader has mentioned that not “all” of their material was on Youtube. This post was updated to reflect that change.)

Discuss: How do you feel about free content? Does it actually convince you to buy more stuff, or do you think it’s a complete waste?

Comments 

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Tags

Comedy, Viral Marketing, ,

  • theaveragedave
    i have always found youtube comments to be the lowest form of intelligence. i'm glad they got a chance to throw in a jab in that direction while promoting sales at the same time.
  • starscream9289
    HOLY.....23,000%!!!!!!!!
  • I didn't even know percents went that high!! ZOMG
  • Leland Palmer
    FUCKING AWESOME!!
  • It's too bad i already own the Flying Circus boxset or I'd buy it just to boost these number.
  • Free gets you eyes watching, eyes watching gets you sales.

    this doesn't apply 100% of the time but it still is predictable
  • MartinKSmith
    I have downloaded films illegally in the past, the vast majority of which I've also bought on DVD later, when available. If I enjoy something, i want to own it, to keep it. I don't want just an AVI file on the computer, I want a DVD, the packaging, the special features. So, yeah, getting something for free, to see if I want to buy it? Will, usually, make me buy it - If i like it.
  • I'm in the same boat. I have downloaded movies just to see if they were any good. If they sucked than I deleted the file and forgot about it, but if the movie is good, I'll go buy the DVD and support the people who made it, with the added bonus of special features. I just don't want to pay for crap.
  • whsmith
    This is what worries me about the whole "digital distribution" thing when it comes to movies. people are acting like digital downloads can replace all physical discs . I think a lot of people who actually buy movies rather than rent them do so because they are collectors and enthusiasts. A heavily compressed digital download from iTunes (or bittorrent) doesn't replace a Special Edition DVD or Blu Ray box set from Criterion. People that care about movies want a physical archive of their material. Even though blu ray has been slow on the uptake, I sure hope discs aren't going away any time soon
  • If you haven't seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, do it now! One of my favorite endings ever.
  • Dr_Gonzo
    Getting free content just makes me want more free content. I'm a little off topic here but...

    I don't know how others feel about this but I kinda feel like the odds have been evened a little. For many years I've been buying music legally (Tapes (yes I'm that old), Vinyl, CD as well as DVD's even a few Laserdiscs way back when). I always resented how much things cost me to buy though. Retailers always had such high mark up on everything that most of the time I felt alienated because I couldn't afford more than one or two albums or dvd's at a time. So now things have changed, the power no longer rests with the retailers and distributors, they can no longer bend us over and royally screw us out of our money. Now they complain about 'piracy' or as I like to call it 'freedom of information'. Boo Hoo. No tears will run down my cheek for the multimillion £/$ businesses.
  • Dr_Gonzo
    Sadly it's the artists that are slaves to the labels who suffer, but that has always been the case hasn't it? Back in the mid nineties when a new CD (which cost <£2 to produce) could cost me £16.99 (or more) did the artist really get that much out of my purchase, I don't think so.

    The truth is they probably got more or less the same as they would get now when you can download the same album legally for £5. How about DVD's that cost upto £23 to buy just a few years ago and still some hgh street stores will try and get £15-£16 out of you. Sorry, but for me -if I can listen to something for free or watch something for free or own something for free, not only will I do it, but I'll feel good about it because I remember all the years of being ripped off by 'the man'.

    I love the Python crew, always have and I already own a few of the movies and live shows on dvd. But would putting sketches on youtube make me go out and buy some more dvd's, no, but good luck to them and I hope they make some money. It just won't be my money.
  • It's quite logical, when you think about it ... the YouTube videos, while there are many, are a taster. Even if many clips from an episode or a TV show are uploaded, you can't get the whole thing in its original form. It's true that the sketch show nature of Monty Python helps, but I think we can apply this thinking to a lot more stuff. Once you've had a taste and you like it, you want more. Besides, DVDs will have lots of extras and such, which people can't get on the YouTube channel.

    As an example (though in a different industry), I downloaded Radiohead's In Rainbows when it was made available on the Internet - I didn't pay for it. But after I listened to it, I loved it so much that I went out and bought a bunch of Radiohead CDs. Go figure.
  • Goro
    Radiohead, Trent Reznor, and now Monty Python. MOST people want to OWN things. They don't want to have this partial rentownership that DRM wants to make it. Give people free access to music/video and they will often buy the actual item.

    Also, most people are savvy enough to understand the difference b/w piracy and honest purchase and how paying for actual product supports the artists. Providing free content is a way of garnering goodwill and with that goodwill can come sales.

    "Hell this is pretty damb good; I might as well buy the DVD since it's only $14 at amazon..."

    I wonder when we'll hit the tipping point where this becomes a standard practice; and i wonder how effective it will be when EVERYONE is doing it. I'm betting that if the industry ever jumps in with both feet, we won't see 23,000% increase in sales....
  • Aaron
    Personally, most of the DVD's I own I bought because I had access to a free copy before hand. If I see a movie for free, and deem it worth buying, I'll buy it.
  • Rob
    The whole free-content-generating-sales thing is still unresearched, but as an (admittedly infrequent) downloader of music, I look for something i'm interested in, and then invariably go and hunt out a vinyl version (if it's available, which it usually is). So free (in this case free and illegal) content definitely makes me then buy a record, if I like it. I haven't bothered downloading films; but I would take the same approach.

    What's interesting is that I have a friends & work colleagues a few years younger than me, in their middleish 20s, the majority of whom have an entirely different attitude to downloading. They seem to have less memory of a pre-mass-internet world, and do seem to regard illegal downloading of films and music as "the norm", and preferable to spending (even tho they can afford to as much as I can). They're not as fussed by the distinction between a record, CD, DVD or Bluray and a mp3 or avi file. Quality of sound or image, perceived or literal, doesnt' seem to play as big a part.

    These people are not idiots or selfish, and in every other respect they're just as passionate, knowledgeable and informed about the music & films they like, as I am. But their conception of media, availability, access and payment for any of the above is very different to mine, and that of my other 30something friends & colleagues. Can't help but wonder if there's a connection between what appears to be an age-related difference in attitude (and whether that is due to the internet/email/mass communication boom of the last 20 years), and the likelihood (or not) of people paying for a film, for example, if it's offered for free in lower quality first.

    God I feel old now ;) Longer comment than I expected to make, sorry folks..
  • On a purely simplistic level, how freakin' awesome is this? Chapman (God rest his soul), Gilliam, Jones, Palin, Cleese and Idle are comedic geniuses and guided comedy in film and television in the right direction. Once I come home from work later, I know what I'm going to spend my night doing!
  • none
    Masturbating to pictures of the python gang and writing slash fanfiction?

    tee hee
  • Yes, that is exactly what I will be doing. You sir, are indeed a mind-reader! :O
  • We were always brought up to test drive the car before purchasing, and to take a gander at the art before it graced our homes. Kudos to the Python crew for helping move the medium to a fair consumer friendly environment.
  • Perfect analogies. And what's more, this proves there's something of worth to the theory.
  • That is awesome. What a good way to convince people to buy!
  • So piracy is the engine that drives sales?
  • Shad
    I don't think anyone is saying that PIRACY drives sales. Treating your consumers and fans with respect and trusting their judgment does.
  • dave
    deja vu. topless robot.
  • Dr_Gonzo
    Sadly it's the artists that are slaves to the labels who suffer, but that has always been the case hasn't it? Back in the mid nineties when a new CD (which cost £2 to produce) could cost me £16.99 (or more) did the artist really get that much out of my purchase, I don't think so.

    The truth is they probably got more or less the same as they would get now when you can download the same album legally for £5. How about DVD's that cost upto £23 to buy just a few years ago and still some hgh street stores will try and get £15-£16 out of you. Sorry, but for me -if I can listen to something for free or watch something for free or own something for free, not only will I do it, but I'll feel good about it because I remember all the years of being ripped off by 'the man'.

    I love the Python crew, always have and I already own a few of the movies and live shows on dvd. But would putting sketches on youtube make me go out and buy some more dvd's, no, but good luck to them and I hope they make some money. It just won't be my money.
  • Actually you know what? The artists get LESS with mp3 purchases. Why you ask? Well lets talk about the wonderful practices of the record industry..You buy a song for 99 cents or an album for whatever and guess what ? the Artist STILL has to pay a percentage for packaging and production because it is in their contracts and the record labels puposefully have stalled redoing the legalities of their royalty agreements with the artists. Even though there is ZERO physical product the artist have to still pay the record labels the same % as if there was.

    So shed EVEN LESS of a tear for the god damn record labels because their insatiable greed is now drowning them. The same goes for the cell phone companies, major retailers and film studios. Long live the internet
  • "I just don't want to pay for crap." Took the words right out of my mouth... or, errr... off my keyboard. Whatever. I agree.
  • That's OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!

    Also I think this is great news, I love the Python crew, so it's great to hear people are buying their stuff once again. It's also good to hear that they've successfully found a way to distribute stuff online for FREE and have increased sales as the result.
    Producers and marketers, take note!
  • thetwiztidfreak
    This is great they are getting sales from imbrassing the internet and giving people what they what a chance to try before they buy. I will admit that i dont buy Music cds and havent since napster cameout back in the day. But if theres an artist i like i always go to thier concerts when they come to town and i always make sure to buy a T-Shirt at every show i go to. That way the Artist gets my money opposed to the shitty suits at the record label. what does the artist get if i buy a cd in a store 10cents each cd? much better to give them the 20 for the shirt plus cost of concert ticket. And on the dvds like most of you if its a movie that i like i will buy it as soon as its avaliable for purchase or as soon as i got some xtra cash. Its nice having the dvd with the case and special features .
  • bakayaro
    plus it beats being a tool, eh?
  • I know there are more underground music artists that a lot of blogs post downloadable tracks for. Kind of like a general overview of what you can get. With the introduction of DJs spinning downloaded tracks as opposed to records so frequent, a good track will get a lot of people going "what is that?"

    That said, it stands to reason that a crew like Monty Python would get that. HOWEVER, there are two factors to consider:

    1) As clever as the process is they're already a popular and established name.

    2) They can afford to take that risk.

    This makes the whole process seem hit or miss to me. I'd like to see the numbers on something or someone new and unestablished. In that sense it's the quality that institutes a truer response.
  • theet
    It didn't take a genius to work out that this would work. It just took someone with the balls to do it.

    Good on 'em.
  • Alan Light
    We've known about this effect for at least 15 years, when books which were made freely available online saw significant increases in sales. Free sharing means more people know about the product, and a good number of those people will want to pay the producers - either out of a sense of fairness, or wanting to reward good work, or to encourage the producers to produce more good work. Some people won't pay because they don't like the work, some people (such as students) can't afford to pay - but the familiarity with the work increases the chances that they will buy the product at a later date. As a matter of fact, my first exposure to Monty Python's "Holy Grail" was from pirated transcripts widely published on USENET in the late 80's and early 90's. I now own at least 4 Monty Python DVDs and 1 CD ("Monty Python Sings"), and might never have gained an interest if it hadn't been for those pirated transcripts which introduced me to the material. In any case, it should also be noted that pirated works that go to people who can't afford the licensed product are not lost sales, because those people wouldn't have bought the product otherwise - but it is still good marketing, because they might *eventually* be able to afford it. Of course, a few people just refuse to pay, but these seem to be in the minority.

    As I said, we have known about this for a long, long time. It is sheer stupidity on the part of the RIAA that has caused them to alienate their customers, and I don't feel one bit sorry that they are losing business.
  • Kevin
    If I had the money, I would buy their DVDs. But when the content is so readily available for free online, I see no reason to waste money on it.
  • "I'd like to see the numbers on something or someone new and unestablished. In that sense it's the quality that institutes a truer response."

    In the ebook world publishers are discovering that free downloads of the first book in a series can lead to much interest in the rest.

    It's very hard for a new/unestablished author/artist/musician to make a name for themselves, and releasing stuff for free is much cheaper than paying for eye-wateringly expensive advertising.

    E.g. if an artist were to release one or two tracks from an album as free MP3 but offer the rest for a low price, they can't lose money they already have. On the other hand, paying for ads could easily send them broke.
  • The only reason I'll purchase music at this point is because of clips I find on YouTube. Lately I've been buying more music on DRM-free Amazon than I have in my entire life for this same reason. I may be an unusual case, but it's working for me.
  • andreas
    If I buy a music CD, it is after hearing some pieces on last FM or on pandora - for free.
  • 23,000% INCReASE! DAMN!! Good work Monty python you sure deserve it
  • DamnClever
    Yeah, I would pay for it (not that we can actually BUY it under the amoral copyright law) if it was GOOD - but lets face it, most created stuff is utter rubbish and not worth paying for.
    I'm sure some of the older people out there feel they have been ripped off by hollyweird and the music industry for decades, and now they are getting a bit of their own back.
  • j.c.
    and now for something completely different.
  • tomvons
    While I agree that the MPAA and RIAA have been treating their customers like criminals and that needs to change, I doubt that the sole contributing factor to the MP sales increase was making their content free on YouTube. Hulu hosts a ton of free tv shows and movies, and i haven't heard any reports of this leading to sales increases.
  • anon
    at the very least it means that the free content did not interfere with whatever other factor might have caused the increase. that is unless you suspect that sales would have increased *even more* were the youtube content not there.

    without tracking site referrals, i guess we'll never know.
  • none
    Erm, they do not show "everything." They show a couple dozen clips. This is hardly a new idea... you give folks a taste, and then try to get them to buy the whole thing. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, but it's a completely standard marketing tactic. There are two differences:

    1) They are brazenly lying to us by claiming to offer everything there is for free, when in fact they are offering perhaps 5% of what there is for free.
    2) They are saving a lot of money by using youtube.

    Overall, pretty lame. But the monty python stuff is great so eh, whatever.
  • Coyote
    They stated early on that they would start with the good stuff and work their way down, eventually all material will be online (if they stick to their word that is).
  • anonymous
    It is also been aired on PBS. That, too, could have contributed, I would think...
  • David Call
    I never really thought to buy mp3s until I started DJ'ing and switched from vinyl to mp3 (cheaper, lots). Now I buy every song I play (even if the original artist has already sent me a demo copy) because as a producer, I think it's only ethical for me to support others as I hope people will support/buy my own music. In this struggling economy, I find it hard to fault people with little to no income for finding ways around purchasing their music, but really, with iTunes the songs are usually about $1/ea. If that's really pushing your budget, maybe there's a bigger issue with your spending habits.

    I definitely think that the work behind making music (and maybe movies, but probably not) is going to end up being the promotion needed to make money from your craft, and not necessarily be the main source of income in the future. I.E., I produce to get my name out there and get my music heard, and then demand for my name warrants that I get booked for gigs, thus making me money (even though pirating music keeps me from making much from the actual music I make). I *think* all that made sense......
  • ljb
    I think you're on the right track here and really, that's the way it used to be. Recorded music was a marketing tool (and expense) for performers. You made some records and sent them to all the radio stations. If they played your record a lot, you'd get bigger shows. Performing music was a musician's job, not recording it.
  • I must have angered the /Film gods. My post is nowhere to be seen.
    As it was written.
  • anon
    "The article fails to mention that all DVDs come with a commemoratve gourd, which is the true reason for the increase in sales."
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