Commentary inspired by: Top 5 Reasons Porn-for-Profit Is Dying by Richard Abowitz
In which I claim that Mr. Abowitz is both completely correct and utterly, totally wrong:
Not that Mr. Abowitz needs (nor, indeed, cares about) my seal of approval, but I’m giving it because he brings up the main issues the mainstream porn industry is claiming to heaving its dying gasps. However, I’m giving said approval with a caveat or two, because what he is right about is the death of the traditional porn-for-profit business model, not porn-for-profit itself.
He gives us five reasons that the porn industry as we know it is dying, two of which, the declining taboo status of porn and online gaming, are very significant and (more importantly) very new reasons that everyone is scared. I was particularly impressed with his insights into online gaming, which is a point that might be laughed at but should not be glossed over.
However gaming itself, along with the other factors he mentions – video-on-demand and porn-star hookers – are not actually the destroyers of porn that the industry fears. What they represent is not the death of an industry, but the fundamental paradigm shift of one.
If that sounds deep (and dirty…yeah, you were thinking it, don’t deny!), consider the simple fact that this has happened before. Twice. When video technology hit the home market, it caused the complete devastation of the pornographic film industry as it stood back then. Adult movie theaters were the first casualty, but many studios took major hits as the industry’s foundations shuffled under their business plans. Similarly, the same thing happened in the 90s when the internet jumped the ivory tower hurdle and was welcomed into people’s homes. Particularly in the case of the video revolution, we heard a lot of the same prognostication going on then that we do now, albeit with different technical terms: “If everyone can afford a video camera and sell cassettes out of their home with a cheap duplicator to make copies off their master tape, then no one will ever buy professionally produced films and the industry is dooooooomed.” Yeah, uhm…not so much.
With that in mind, lets look at what’s changing, but not actually killing, porn-for-profit:
Online gaming, for one, which Abowitz makes an excellent point of, but stops short of the logical conclusion. Sims has already delved into the quagmire of virtual sex, and Second Life encourages it in a variety of ways. That may be a new definition of porn-for-profit, but it still fits.
Video-on-demand, for another. Abowitz (and the pornographic film business in general) hypothesizes that free sites like xtube.com and redtube.com (and, similarly, the visual media feeds of blogs such as SexIsNotTheEnemy or HappyCouples on tumblr) will reduce the market share for mainstream porn. What is not considered is how these sites are, themselves, porn-for-profit, and how members are using those sites to generate their own porn-for-profit by creating “channels” and brands for themselves.
Also, the “porn star hookers” phenomenon can hardly be considered not porn for profit. Such professional sex workers (as I personally prefer to describe them) need pornography to sell their product/services. They may create the porn themselves via home studios and web cams, but produce it they will. The only way this is not porn-for-profit is in the way it is not profiting the traditional mainstream pornography producers. And if you haven’t looked in the sites for these sex workers, you need to drive by and take a look. They might be giving some of it away, but if you want the DVD special edition, you are going to pay handsomely for it.
There are other ways the porn is still profitable, as well. Nina Hartley is the premier example of porn-for-profit by personal branding. People are buying her books, her DVDs, her videos-on-demand, memberships to her website, and also paying to see her live. Sites such as the exquisite and interesting Beautiful Agony are selling their own site members’ porn to other members.
One significantly overlooked category of porn-for-profit is erotica for women, which is overlooked because erotica for women has traditionally not been considered porn for reasons I, personally, don’t understand. It’s foolish to dismiss it over semantics, though, because online publishing “houses” such as Ellora’s Cave and Ravenous Romance are making huge inroads and significant profits off of their customers’ desire for hardcore sex in written format. Personally I wonder how much longer it will be before one of these companies jumps the fence and starts producing films of their best selling stories. Traditional porn-for-profit businesses might be really, truly worried about being put out of business by piracy and free vids sites online, but they are looking in completely the wrong direction. Women are the up-and-coming demographic for porn (or “erotica”, whatever) and dismissing that truth is what is going to put the mainstream and successful porn production companies of today out of business tomorrow.
Quite frankly, there will always be porn-for-profit, because people will always be willing to pay for exactly the kind of sexual experience they want to have. This whole matter is more about how the venues for selling porn have changed; and however much they change now, you can believe that they will be changing again down the road. The porn industry should know this fact as true better than most.
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[There is a reason I did not address piracy in this post. Actually, there are several reasons, which deserve a post unto themselves, and which I’m sure I’ll get around to writing soon.]
