Is “Free” Destroying Porn?
The L.A. Times published a story yesterday about the trouble the porn industry is in and how it’s affecting performers and business owners alike. It’s an interesting read, but to make a long story short, free content is killing porn. Business is down across the board and the irony is that the tube sites that are destroying the industry aren’t even making money.
Paying for content simply isn’t necessary anymore and most of us don’t really want to. Sure, MP3s are only a buck on iTunes or Amazon, but you really can’t beat free. And free content’s not going anywhere.
I do wonder about the accepted wisdom that people who want free porn go to tube sites and never pay for anything. I know the tube sites are popular and I know that the advertising on them is next to worthless, but I’m never one to take the Chicken Littles of the world without a small grain of salt. So tell me…
Loading ... Loading ...Related posts:
- How Specific are Your Porn Interests?
- Study: AEE Attendees Male, Business Down, Free Porn Rampant
- New HIV Infection Reported in Porn Industry: The Facts as We Know Them
Tags: adult industry, free porn, galleries, la times, paysites, torrents, tube sites
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
13 Responses to “Is “Free” Destroying Porn?”
Subscribe
I am a…
August 11th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
G man says:I currently subscribe to Videobox which gives me truckloads of quality porn movies at a ridiculously low price. I just don’t understand why anyone would spend time sifting through all the tripe at slow tube sites that give you very low image quality.
But that only covers movies. I also enjoy still images (flix and pix do different things for me) and in that department I download from a ton of free sites. – Both traditional gallery sites for mainstream porn images and blogs and tumblr pages for “alt porn”.
I would happily pay for access to a good site with loads of different types of quality images. But I simply haven’t found anything like that out there. And I just can’t feel guilty about hunting for my knuckle-glazing pix fix.
August 11th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
alison hart says:I’ve never understood why people wouldn’t pay a few bucks to actually see what’s happening in their videos either, but my perspective is bound to be slightly different from the average porn user’s.
I think it’s interesting that a VideoBox style site never emerged for images. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons for it, but it does seem odd that no one’s ever tried (as far as I know).
August 11th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
viril says:For me the “free stuff” is in regards to a specific scene in a DVD that has long been out of print. I like VideoBox and have payed for Naughty America, Brazzers, Bang Bros, and Pink Visual. Each offered something good but why I stop the subscription is it becomes stale REALLY FAST. What I do now is rejoin the sites every 6-12 months that way it’ll be fresh.
Free porn also goes beyond “Tube” sites there are a ton of avenues out there like the other P2P programs (Direct Downloads, IRC, etc….) besides Bit Torrent. It all comes down to where you want to get them.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:13 am
numbles says:Well I’m too a long time subscribers of videobox and do have a lifetime account on met-art + subscribe every now and then to sites such as abbywinters.
I do have to say that quite a lot of paysites have great issues with things like ease of use, navigation. Such as in showing me the stuff I want quickly. Thats one thing the tubesites do at least as good as most paysites, sometimes even better.
Plus I do have to admit that when I’m in the mood to look at some kinky fetish stuff I just hate to subscribe to a site that has maybe five hours of video content and pay a whopping 40 Euros. Thats when I go and take a look if the isn’t just available for free somewhere.
In the end I think it comes down to quality and quantity. If a site or company is able to deliver both then they certainly will survive. Maybe porn isn’t the cashcow anymore it used to be but its far from dying I think.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:52 am
numbles says:Another thing Id love to know is if this trend of making your own website that features only one actress is really making any money.
I mean, Sasha Grey for example has enough fanatics that love her emotionless porn atletics to make such a site a viable option I guess. But Savannah Stern and most of the rest of the bunch that’s launching websites of their own? I doubt so.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:00 am
alison hart says:That seems to be a common way of joining paysites – join for a month or two once or twice a year and see what you missed, then join a different site. Seems like a good way to keep up with the quality sites.
Interestingly, the folks who assert that the sky is falling aren’t concerned with anything besides tube sites. Makes me wonder how many people are downloading their movies on Limewire or something similar.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:04 am
alison hart says:I’ve noticed the difficulties with navigation and ease of use as well (it used to be my job to notice these things, as a matter of fact). I’ve long wondered why the people who run these sites think they can get away with such bad design.
That’s a good point about fetish content. It’s extremely expensive and not as evergreen as gonzo porn from the valley.
I think your last two statements are related. The big programs have gotten used to making tens of millions of dollars a year (and thensome) and when that shrinks by 30%, they feel it. The girls who have their own small sites don’t have the same expectations of earnings – a few million would be outstanding for them – so by their standards, they are successful.
August 12th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
viril says:There are a lot of people downloading their movies. I recall seeing a Brazzers video that got leaked months ahead of its release with over 400 something downloads. Some torrent sites shows you the number of times a file is snatched. And usually the number is quite high, mainly in the 500 to 700 mark.
I am sure the companies are aware of the torrents but seeing most of the servers are offshore it is next to impossible on taking them down. Given the fact that morally and politically no foreign nation would want to help the industry fight piracy.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
numbles says:“a few million would be outstanding for them”…and I have to stretch and slave myself away ( in a non sexual way ) to get above the 100 grand.
I want millions too
August 13th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
alison hart says:Yeah, the industry is keeping tabs on the Pirate Bay trial to an extent, but I think the tube sites are just a bigger target. Not to mention that half the industry probably doesn’t even know how to download a file they’ve found on a torrent site.
August 13th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
alison hart says:I mayyyy have overstated their earnings a bit. It’s probably more in the hundred thousand ballpark. But I think we can both agree that that’s a nice chunk of change.
August 14th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
HotScooter2 says:Hey there Y’all:
in my opinion free porn is worth what you pay for it nothing. and all i got from torrent and limewire was a lot of viruses that almost ruined my computer. and as i recall there is a yearly charge for downloading both. and many free sites try to trick you into paying for it.
i find it much safer using a pay site,and the quality much better
August 18th, 2009 at 9:53 am
alison hart says:That’s a really good point. Generally speaking, you’re not going to get viruses from paysites and that alone seems to make paying worthwhile.