The number one album on iTunes as of Saturday wasn’t a new release by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam or Paul Simon, although these musical debuts were in the top ten. The number one “album” on iTunes was Stephen Colbert’s roast of President Bush at the White House Correspondents Dinner three weeks ago. For a comedy routine that fell flat in the live delivery, that baby’s got legs.
Although no one is saying just how many downloads (audio-only via Audible.com) there have been of Colbert’s post-dinner skit, at $1.95/pop, C-SPAN, the usually stodgy and decidedly non-profit cable network, is not raking in an unexpected windfall from the performance. C-SPAN owns the copyright to the entire recorded version of the dinner but sells its audio material to Audible for a flat monthly fee.
Although I thought the routine was hilarious (unlike, apparently, the journalists and politicos in the room), I would not have predicted the success it has had. I’ve even had conversations today about the YouTube video version of Colbert’s roast (which C-SPAN had pulled due to a deal it had with Google video). What the heck gives?
Cynthia Brumfield at 10:26 PM|Comments(0)
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