Could Louis CK Lead A Ticketing Revolution?

You will not be able to buy a ticket for Louis C.K.'s forthcoming American tour dates from global ticketing giant Ticketmaster, nor from anywhere else besides from C.K. himself. The comedian announced earlier this week that he would be taking care of all ticket sales through his website, giving him complete control of ticket prices as well as consumer information.

He also plans on using this as a method of cutting out scalping, threatening that any ticket seen to be sold online for a price higher than the flat $45 he is charging for each show will be immediately cancelled.

With the ticketing industry booming the world over, one wonders how soon it will be before bands and artists embrace a similar model to C.K. on a large scale. With the power to conduct their own online ticket sales, artists could potentially avoid charging their fans the same fees as a regular ticketing agency as well as immediately receive a list of the email addresses of their fans who have purchased tickets, which could potentially be used to bolster their mailing list.

Public resistance against traditional ticket outlets such as Ticketmaster is growing, just last month an Arkansas man took the giant company to court, so displeased was he about the fees he was charged.

Whether the music industry is willing to embrace C.K.'s brave methods will be interesting to watch over the coming months and years.

It's not the first time C.K. has made an ambitious leap into selling himself, late last year he filmed a comedy special called Live at the Beacon that he released as a download online for $5 per copy. In just over a week he had cleared $1 million.