03-14-2014, 09:39 AM
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Confirmed User
Industry Role:
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 6,697
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Quote:
The adult entertainment business, centered in the San Fernando Valley, has
weathered several recessions since it took off with the advent of home video in
the 1980s. But this time the industry is not dealing with just a weakened
economy. A growing abundance of free content on the Internet is undercutting
consumers' willingness to pay for porn, and with it the ability of many workers
to earn a living in the business.
For Stern, 23, the rapid decline of job opportunities in the porn business over
the last year has been dramatic. She has gone from working four or five days a
week to one and now has employers pressuring her to do male-female sex scenes
for $700, a 30% discount from the $1,000 fee that used to be the industry
standard.
Less than two years ago, Stern earned close to $150,000 annually, sometimes
turned down work and drove a Mercedes-Benz CLK 350. Now she's aggressively
reaching out for jobs and making closer to $50,000 a year.
As for that Mercedes? She's replacing it with a used Chevy Trailblazer -- from
her parents.
"The opportunities in this industry really are disappearing," Stern said. "It's
extremely stressful."
Industry insiders estimate that since 2007, revenue for most adult production
and distribution companies has declined 30% to 50% and the number of new films
made has fallen sharply.
"We've gone through recessions before, but we've never been hit from every side
like this," said Mark Spiegler, head of the Spiegler Girls talent agency, who
has worked in porn since 1995.
"It's the free stuff that's killing us, and that's not going away," said Dion
Jurasso, owner of porn production company Combat Zone, which has seen its
business fall about 50% in the last three years.
Porn is hardly the only segment of the media industry struggling with these
issues. But its problems appear to be more severe. Whereas online piracy has
forced big changes in the music industry and is starting to affect movies and
television, it has upended adult entertainment.
At least five of the 100 top websites in the U.S. are portals for free
pornography, referred to in the industry as "tube sites," according to Internet
traffic ranking service Alexa .com. Some of their content is amateur work
uploaded by users and some is acquired from cheap back catalogs, but much of it
is pirated.
Sites like Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube attract more users than TMZ and the
Huffington Post. The porn sites are even bigger than Pirate Bay, the top portal
for illegal downloads of movies, TV shows and music.
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http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug...s/fi-ct-porn10
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Quote:
Porn Has No One But Itself to Blame
Sex isn?t selling: This is the headline of an issue of Canadian Business
magazine. Of course it?s long been one of the truisms of marketing?sex sells.
But this article contends that for the first time in recent memory sex no longer
accomplishes what it once did; it no longer piles up the profits.
The focus of the article is pornography and its coming decline. The author
contends that pornography has been unable to adapt to the new realities of the
Internet, realities that dictate that everything must be free, or at least
everything that can be shared in bits and bytes. Porn producers are reporting
that they have seen revenue fall 80% from their best days; Playboy is bleeding
money and laying off staff; actors who were once paid $2,000 for a single scene
are now being offered just half of that; revenue for major distributors has
fallen precipitously.
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http://www.challies.com/articles/por...tself-to-blame
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