Has Gay Porn Bottomed Out (Financially Speaking)?
The Advocate just released an article called "Porn Panic" which asks whether the gay porn industry will be dealt a "knock-out blow" by The New Depression much like the auto and financial industries have been. It's an excellent article that deserves a full read, but we've summarized some of the interesting highlights and have posted some polls to get your feedback.
PORN IS PRIDE?: Porn DVD sales are down between 25% to 45%, model fees have been cut 20%, February was a bad month for new memberships, and declined credit cards on recurring billings have increased from one or two per week to seven to 10 per day, according to some websites. Apart from offering whack-off material, bigger porn studios also contribute large amounts to HIV and gay rights organizations. So if big studios go down, so will their contributions (with no other givers to fill the vacuum).
CYBER SEX GETS AN UPGRADE: To compete in the overcrowded online porn market, some porn sites/studios are consolidating to create large gay adult entertainment conglomerates. For instance, Raging Stallion Studios/Pistol Media combined with AEBN/NakedSword in February. This allows for competitors to combine their accounting, warehouse, distribution, web, studio, and factory resources instead of redundantly competing. Meanwhile, others studios are changing their web formats to accommodate mobile devices and vary their offerings. For example, some porn sites now also feature downloadable videos, DVD and sex-toy stores, fan social networks, porn star blogs, picture galleries, and on-demand video.
More points and polls, AFTER THE JUMP!
PEOPLE AND PIRATES LOVE FREE PORN: "Tube sites" (like XTube) feature user-created porn content while other file-sharing and bit torrent sites let members download pirated studio material illegally. Although XTube prohibits and actively removes pirated porn, other big tube sites shrug and say that there's no way they can police all of their users 24-7-365, placing the policing back on porn studios' hands. Though a handful of studios have won court and out-of-court settlements against pirates, studios would rather spend their money creating more porn and not every one can afford their own investigative and legal teams.
HARDER, FASTER, BETTER?: Reduced model salaries can force would-be porn models to seek out careers in other fields, like escorting or working at Subway (like Kurt Wild once did) and higher education (RJ Danvers currently attending college). Porno movies also used to attract well-trained filmmakers looking to snag some bucks on the fly. But the rising number of free and amateur sites has pushed out the "professional porn director" except for some big names, like ChiChi LaRue and Dink Flamingo. Although porno flicks still come close to achieving artistry despite the financial crunch (like Raging Stallion's well-made To The Last Man), but other studios feel forced to cater to niche audiences with kinkier tastes (such as water sports or barebacking) because web-users can find vanilla sex almost anywhere else for free. A few billing providers (such as Visa) prohibit their partner sites from charging for certain content like water sports, for example. Likewise, some beautiful porn models might prefer to opt out than go bareback or have someone pee in their eyes.
POLITICS AND PORN BAILOUTS: While the auto and financial industries get bailouts, the American government often saddles the porn industry with additional burdens, leaving porn barons asking for the help of fans and viewers to get their politicians to ease up. But while a large outpouring of support from porn lovers is unlikely, a diminished porn industry means less studio contributions to LGBT and HIV service organizations. "Last year Titan Media alone donated more than $100,000 to such groups." Also, porn forms a big part of gay culture and was probably the first exposure some of us had to gay intimacy, especially for older gay men. However, younger gays of the "Google generation" don't feel the same sexual oppression of the past and neither have nostalgia for nor respect porn, seeing it as purely a way to get off.
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QC Asians
Reader Comments
Your 2¢, in chronological order — add your comment below.
ABOUT YOUR VOTE............
If you had included, "Should QC give so much attention to the workings of the porn industry?"
You would have gotten my NO vote, and perhaps a majority of others. There are "insider" websites, which do not interest me.
I like the porn, not the business discussions.
Thanks
Queerclick, in your poll taking questions you seem to have forgotten to ask one question: Will you buy porn if it's good? I for one will still buy a really good porn.
But porn movies nowadays have been diluted by just one genre: Young white guys everywhere! For example I visited QC this morning and all I see are White guys, White guys, and more White guys. Two whole pages with dozens of posts just white guys. And then there's the sex part it's just all been the same getting naked, jacking off, blow-job, fucking, cum, money.
Just about anyone can make porn movie nowadays. And so the industry is now overwhelmed with a-dime-a-dozen young white guys looking to make a quick buck.
Then there's the technology in it self. Movies can now easily pirated and distributed. Many blogs now offer free download of many movies especially porns. So what's the point of paying for it now?
But I still think the porn industry is still recession-proof. It's sex and sex always sells. Maybe it won't be as profitable as it was once has but every business has a downturn as much as an upturn.
The porn industry is like the rest of the world: Those at the top of organizations are used to big paychecks. There will always be enough porn, because if some "actor" can't get $1000 for on-camera sex, someone will do it for $400. Getting fees to where consumers will bite is trickier, but it will happen.
When "Adorable Asses" offers a $5 month-long membership, "Precocious Pricks" will figure out how to restructure their fee schedule if too few sign up for a $39.95 recurring monthly membership.
Porn is, like so many other things, a discretionary (sic?) item for most of us. When people had extra money to spend, they spent money on a lot of it, now that money is tight, not so much. I don't use sites like X Tube but I do choose DRM free sites and I get the one month non recurring memberships now--I pay a litttle more upfront, but I can download all my faves from that site and view later. Then, the next month, I move to another site, and so on. I rotate between 3 or 4 sites on a regular basis. So I am spending 40 dollars a month now vs, say 100 dollars a month like I was before. And I always go through QC so they can get their little piece of it to keep this awesome site up and running!
As far as the "white guys" thing -- It's a function of the market.
Most guys who are really into Group A, B, or C can find many dozens of websites with those guys --- or mixed groups.
If QC goes PC, and balances out the percentages, does it go away from its own established audience, thus become weaker?
PERSONALLY, I like men from all groups, if I meet them, but I do better with people of a similar heritage to me, most of the time. For whatever reason, I am excited less often by photos of ethnic men --- shoot me!
I could live totally without the young twinks, glory holes, and the leather stuff (except the hysterically funny/exciting Straight Hell).
So QC --- stick to what you have success with, most of the time, says I. (and maybe note that the porn industry thing drew practically no comments, so maybe I was correct in writing that most of us are not so interested as the QC staff is)
THANKS!
I don't agree with Bob. I am glad that you occasionally cover the business side of porn. The "insider" websites often have too much to wade through and are not nearly as interesting as QC. I love QC and check it out everyday and content like this post are just as interesting to me as all the other content you have out there. Keep up the good work.
I think that digital movies are the way to go. The studios should do like Amazon and sell thier movies online in digital format. So we can either rent or buy whatever we like. I mean selling DVD's at $50 bucks a pop in this economy is crazy.
I also think that while production values of some movies are good, the actual scenes and players are not. It's often boring and passionless (too many GFP).
And finally, there are so many websites out there making porn, even though a lot of it is not very good its cheap and prolific. A lot of times its the same stars we see in the DVD's. So I'd rather pay membership to SC than buy a DVD.
Wow, Queerclick.
All these comments merely point to one obvious thing.
QC has become so big that people seem to now look up to you to be a "saviour" of sorts, a provider if you will, of some of our more, ehrm, primal needs.
Way to go, QC!
Love yah!
Where is the first photo from with the nice ass and dick ?