The gang from Monty Python boldly address the world: “For 3 years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them on YouTube. Now the tables are turned. It’s time for us to take matters into our own hands.”

What are they doing? They’re making their works available for free on the Monty Python YouTube channel.

Here’s a great example of artists understanding what their audience really wants. Not everyone wants to own the complete Flying Circus DVD set, so putting the whole thing online makes sense: allow fans to watch the bits they want, when they want. You’re sure to earn a few new DVD sales (or in the Python’s case, a lot of new DVD sales), and you’re not really losing out.

No more of those crap quality videos you’ve been posting. We’re giving you the real thing – HQ videos delivered straight from our vault.

What’s more, we’re taking our most viewed clips and uploading brand new HQ versions. And what’s even more, we’re letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there!

Of course, it helps to be wildly famous and successful, and to have a multi-decade career. It doesn’t hurt that Flying Circus is long out of production, and no new Python movies are forthcoming. This strategy won’t work for every artist, but it certainly is refreshing to see such a win-win every now and again.

Via Oh Gizmo!