Louis C.K.'s Downloadable Comedy Special Earning Big Bucks | Vulture
He took to his website to write,
“12 hours [after the special’s noon launch on Dec. 10], we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we’ve sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video.”
I think this proves that good content rises to the top and despite the availability of pirating, people will pay for value.