Contract Stars in Porn
 

It wasn't too long ago that all girls in porn aspired to be contract stars. A lot of the big DVD based companies that had numerous contract stars have gone under or have cut back on the number of their contract stars i.e. Jill Kelly, Club Jeanna, Sin City etc...

Now that the DVD based business model is being replaced by VOD and subscription based models are contract stars going to be making a come back?

Do you think some of the large cash programs will be hiring porn stars to shoot exclusively for them? I know Bang Brothers tried this briefly with Flower Tucci, but it did not work out.

Do you think the other programs or VOD companies are going to try and do something similar?

No.

I think it's going the other way. Nobody wants to pay for a contract girl.

I think that big name girls who used to be contract girls such as Nikki Benz, Gina Lynn and Shyla Stylez are making more now freelancing for web companies (such as Brazzers, ND and BBROS) than being contract girls. For example, Shyla Stylez has shot 25 scenes for Brazzers already...

It seems like unnecessary big money and big risk. With the exception of solo girl sites, but those just seem different than the dvd girls. And many of them are in risk offset systems (profit sharing not salary).

Who wants to pay a girl's full year 6-figure salary via contract if you don't know you'll get it back? Only but a few companies can do this. They'll have their formula and it will continue to work. But a vast majority of talent will not be under contract.

My personal opinion would be that the girls would be making a bad business decision to become "contract' girls. I'm sure that they still will. Just like the new Vivid girls that just got signed.

I guess it's a status symbol. Reality is, they could be making fortunes with their OWN websites. Recurring billing is a beautiful thing, and Solo Girl sites can make a girl a VERY nice living if they are smart.

I wonder if anybody out there has an affiliate program that specializes in solo girls? Boy, if they did that would be awesome! Oh well, I better quit talking and get back to work here at SOLOSLUTCASH

There was a time and a place for it. In a fragmented market, where a company with conviction could create the girl, it made sense for them to own all rights. Now the market place is much more efficient, much more saturated, much more competition. Could it work out? yes, but the odds are stacked against the company and the girl. Obviously everything is based on price. For some reasons, the girls love the big name studios and calling themselves contract girls, so they sell themselves for cheap. It's a built in advantage to having that brand for so many years.

In reality, the girls are better off not signing, they will easily make more money doing independent scenes if they are hot. And for a girl today to truly become a pornstar name, it makes more sense for them to do as many scenes as possible to generate an audience, then for one company to invest a ton of money hoping to build her. In a way, it's kind of the opposite. Also, contract girls will only work for really the stand out girls, and a lot of the recent signings I've seen haven't been that stand out.

Girls can make more not being a contract girl. I heard Amy Reid charges twice the normal rate and gets over 2k for one b/g scene, I heard she has a ridiculous rate, probably makes a lot more than most contract girls. If she was a contract girl she would probably make max 100k a year at best but she can make a lot more not being a contract girl.

We still have contract models, and it's a business model that simply works for us.

The pressure is on both parties to perform, it's not just on the girls side.

No...I need new girls every day for my jerking pleasures.

Flower Tuccis ass became wider than the Mississippi , that can be one reason. Theres no reason for a porn girl to let herself go that way

If a girl were offered a contract, she should really look at it and run the numbers. First, a contract girl can make WAY WAY WAY more than a freelancer. Let's look at a reasonable best case of the amazingly hot in demand freelancer:

150 scenes a year, $2000 per scene average. Gross $300,000.

That is a HARD HARD working model, she's getting her insides worked out and that's a really hard pace to keep up. I actually think that's way high and the top indy girl is probably pulling $200k.

Now look at a contract girl. I don't know what these girls are pulling but it may be like $100k for 15 weeks of work? So you're down $100k here, but you have 40 weeks off. What do you want to do with them? If freedom and your health are important, take the time off. Live where you want and come in to work. Write a book. Whatever. If money is the key factor, what do you do?

Well, you can photo model. You can softcore model. You can tradeshow booth model in Vegas. You can shoot for mainstream. But the correct way is to go on tour. Become a feature, pull in $2000-$3000 a night off that. So you take another 100 days and work as a feature at $2500 a night. There's another $250k.

And don't discount the real value of the contract for your career - the advertising. Big companies put big money into your name and your face. An indy hopes they get their face on the boxcover. The contract girl gets her face on a full page ad in AVN. And on a floor to ceiling banner at the show. And top billing anywhere. People come to see you because of all the advertising.

If you're an indy, your website gets whatever traffic you send in. If you're a contract girl, your website gets plugged on radio, at strip clubs, billboards, whatever.

And when the contract ends, remember your brand you built with someone else's money. You're worth a lot to the next contract - the next company gets all the investment in your name from the previous company. If you go indy, you're still able to pull big bookings because you have this huge name.

Non contract dvd companies push movies. Contract dvd companies push the talent.

Or a girl could have her own website on an affiliate network and make a million dollars. :)

It's very interesting to get your prespective on this since you run one of the top solo models in the World.

I don't how I missed your post. I was waiting for you to jump in plug away. You have done an amazing job with Claudia-Marie's site. I hope you can repeat your success with your other models.

It's good to see the other side of this. I am not familiar with your contract stars who are they?

:2 cents:

that's rare not the norm.also it seems if the girl wants to feature the dvd side seems to be a better stepping stone.

Much better to have diff. ladies.

It's only rare because Claudia-Marie is the first and only solo girl who has put her entire career in my hands (being married helped lol ) I have ideas, concepts, and enough ass behind it to make it happen for any model who would listen and do the work. BIG money waiting to be had. I just shake my head at the girls out there shooting for 1200 and 1500 bucks a scene.

But I guess that is enough to pay the rent for them and have enough to go out and party with my main man Porno Dan! lol :)

But if a girl is real smart, and looks to the future...she would be building something for herself instead of getting those little one-time fees.

Eventually that will stop. Either the girl will burn out or get oversaturated or both. And then the work ends and she has nothing left to show.

But the companies that shot that material will go right on making money...rebills! cha-ching! If I had been a company paying Claudia-Marie for every scene she has shot, AND if I had paid her $2,000 a scene... she would have only made a little over 100 grand this last year.

And Tony, I showed you some stats. I think you know she makes a LOT more than that and it's growing every day.

She doesn't ride in a new corvette for nothing, and just wait until you see the new house I'm closing on in the next couple of months out in Vegas.

Those things could never have been attained shooting scenes for companies. And the money just continues to grow exponentially every day as more members join than cancel.

It's a no-brainer in my opinion. And as soon as I get re-located, I'm going to be hiring a staff and THEN I'm going to really throw this shit into overdrive and take it up to the NEXT level.

Think this girl could make some money with a solo girl site?


http://www.pornodan.com/wp-content/u...7/img_3635.jpg

Well, I don't think it makes that much sense nowadays unless, as mentioned, we would be talking about solo girl sites.

Where is more value for the end consumer - 500 scenes with different girls or or 150 scenes with say 20 girls signed exclusively?

"Noone has more girls" against. "Our girls are not available anywhere else"

Both approaches might probably work if marketed properly, yet option #1 might also save serious headache for both - the producer / marketer and the talent.

I don't know. A LOT of it has to do with on-camera personality and that litte un-definable "it" factor. Some chicks are smokin' hot but their personality doesn't come through the camera and grab the viewer.

I guess I should clarify my earlier statement...What I said applied to girls that DO have that "it" factor. I was speaking about the contract girls because in most cases they do. Some more than others obviously.

But it really depends on how they look, what niche they fulfill, and most importantly...will they do hardcore, anal, and interracial stuff.

You give me a girl with those qualities and I say she can make FAR more money every time with her own site than working for pay for a company.

Funny thing is that most of the girls who COULD make big money with their own sites are caught in the world of freelancing for companies. I guess because they shined and the companies keep them in demand and they are so busy thinking they are "stars" that they can't see the big money picture.

Then you have thousands of solo girl sites full of girls who DON'T have "it" and are never gonna make any real money. They look great, and shoot their little softcore solo and girl/girl scenes and run their 24 hour a day camshows...and don't make shit.

So, it's hard to tell Dan. You know her, I don't. Is she a sexual deviant like we are? Can she take it in the ass from a 12 inch black cock? And most of all does she genuinely enjoy sex?

I don't think that half the girls in porn valley realize that a viewer can tell they aren't really into sex when we watch them. Yes, we can suspend our disbelief and jerk off real quick. But it's a whole different experience when a girl is REAL.

Hell, Claudia-Marie has some members that write her and admit they have no idea why they are obssessed with her. 99% of our members are obviously into big tits. But we have a few that have been members since day one who freely admit they don't know why they are members because they don't particularly get into big tits. What I've heard over and over from those guys (and I'm paraphrasing) is they just love it even though they can't figure out what it is that is turning them on so much.

I suggest that it is the fact that when an entertainer is on film and REALLY loves what they are doing it just comes across and has an effect on the viewer.

Dan, you know as well as I do that 9 out of 10 of the well known girls working porn valley HATE men and sex in real life. They are just playing their characters.

But when a girl is genuine on film...fucking the same way OFF camera...then you have something special.

And then, yes. I can step in and guide that to a lot of money.

Robbie, I always enjoy reading our posts and I have given some thought to solo girl sites lately. I'd love to chat with you at Internext if you are going to be there.

I'll be there. I don't usually hang much at the seminars, unless someone is speaking that I really want to hear. But I'll be poolside in the day or beachside and at the big nighttime functions as well.

being a contract star was never about the money.. least no directly so it makes no sense to compare it to a freelance model like shyla stylez, sure models like her pull in the big bucks but they also have to work harder.
contract stars did perhaps 10 movies per year, so their lifestyle was laidback and came with lots of fringe benefits. they were treated like stars..

I think a contract girl would be smarter than a freelancer. The freelance girl is hustling for every company making them money and getting oversaturated.

IF a girl had an opportunity to become a contract girl...and if I were in a position of being in charge of her. I would be shooting stuff constantly the entire time she was under contract. And I would only have her do that for one year.

And the day after her contract expired, I would have her own site already built, processing in place, galleries made, and throw open the door. Striking while the iron is hot.

But instead, every one of those girls come out of their contract feeling like they are "in demand" And they are. At that moment they are stars. But they get wined and dined and ego stroked to start shooting for every company for a couple of thousand bucks a shoot.

6 months later they are just another thumbnail on LA Direct Models. 2 years later they are struggling.

Whereas if they had done what I'm saying...2 years later they would be making more money than ever and it would only continue to grow and grow.

Heh-heh....just confirmed my own thoughts. Went to LA Direct Models website and clicked on newest additions. Here's one of the listings:
2008-06-15 - Kaylani Lei Wicked Contract Girl

Bet she's probably dancing too.

I agree with you!

Exactly, just mix it with all these artificial moaning and uber make up and it's a bad joke.. I've seen the most gorgeously looking chicks sucking serious ass on camera, watching a mormon couple in the fuck pyjamas would be way nastier experience...

Personality goes a long, long way.. brain is the most important thing in sex..

Same thing you never want to pick the most polished / doll looking girl for sex, you want the animal woman that'll make you remember every second when you're together..

Smart girls do solo-sites