Dane Cook's File-Sharing Strategy
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A story about how comedian Dane Cook cleverly used file-sharing platforms to gain popularity in the early days of digital distribution.
"This is one of the greatest growth hacks ever. When Kazaa and Limewire and all those different torrent-type downloading programs were out there, Dane Cook created files that would say like 'Chris Rock Stand Up' or 'Dave Chappelle' or 'Eddie Murphy Best Stand Up.'
It would be 4 minutes of Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy, and then the next 56 minutes would transition to Dane Cook. People were searching for those guys, they would download the thing thinking they're getting an hour special of that guy. It would start with that content, then it'd be like 'and now Dane Cook' and he would just start with a joke.
That's how he got his distribution, that's how he got his name out there initially. He became like the most popular comedian in the world for like 2 years. Back then you had live shows plus the CDs and stuff, and then he got into movies."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.