NY Times reports free porn harms industry

something we've all been concerned with was reported in this morning'
s New York Times - I couldn't agree more with this report and have paralleled our drop in retail dvd sales with the spread of free porn -

from the New York Times - Technology
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: June 2, 2007

"The Internet was supposed to be a tremendous boon for the pornography industry, creating a global market of images and videos accessible from the privacy of a home computer. For a time it worked, with wider distribution and social acceptance driving a steady increase in sales.

But now the established pornography business is in decline — and the Internet is being held responsible.

The online availability of free or low-cost photos and videos has begun to take a fierce toll on sales of X-rated DVDs. Inexpensive digital technology has paved the way for aspiring amateur pornographers, who are flooding the market, while everyone in the industry is giving away more material to lure paying customers...."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/te...=5070&emc=eta1

This so much reminded me of "Boogie nights" where in the 80's comes VIDEO and "old school" is not willing to accept it as a new media, but rather keeps doing things their way...

After reading the article I'm not really sure how to respond... I don't see anything wrong with people shooting their own porn and uploading it, sharing it, selling it, be it as amateurish as it can or crappy as can be, afterall if that's what makes sales of "OLD, BIG STUDIOS" low you can't really blame it on internet.

People are obviously tired of "sophisticated, retouched, genetic models and scenery"...

I tought the article was going to be more about online sharing of stolen content that makes new media sales drop, tons of free porn from content producers...

It's freakin' evolution, as I see it. Either you adapt and stop crying, or you keep doing what you think SHOULD sell and what you think people NEED to buy and fall slowly....

Just being online for so many years I've seen that biggest "old" studios were the last to embrace opportunities of online members pages, and yet even after embracing it, they either put tons of watermarks on extremly low quality small thumbs, all videos are in low quality... jesus... what do you expect... embrace new technology and new way of doing, selling and advertising porn.

I'm not really sure what's so shocking about that article... or did I miss a point.

If you make good content that people want and are willing to pay for then your business will continue to grow. Maybe we are just an exception, but our business is up and continues to grow. Both our hard products sales (DVD) and our soft product (VOD and licensing) are up over last year, which was up over the previous year.

Is it a tougher business environment, hell yes. But, if you make good content AND protect it then your business can continue to grow. Is it just a coincidence that we are the most aggressive in the protection of our content and we are one of the few big gay companies still showing growth? My gut says that yes, our anti-piracy efforts are helping our overall sales growth.

I agree that this is adapt or die situation. We are doing all we can to adapt while still maintaining our core principles when it comes to our product. I still believe it comes down to the basic principle that if you make good product that people want, it will sell. Along with good product if you protect it and can stop at least some of the piracy and convert it into sales, that could just be the edge you need to continue growing your business.

This is a time of major change in the adult industry. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next several years. The strong and the smart will survive as they always have in any business.

there really isn't anything "shocking" about this article - except for the fact that the NY Times is regularly reporting on our industry

I think that its interesting and relevant -

we've adapted and are continuing to adapt -

one way is by reducing the number of DVDs we produce and dropping the minimum order from 2,000 to whatever we need - we've introduced new numbers based on "supply and demand" - this minimizes storage and creates less waste in the end (we try to be a "green company")

we've also pulled a lot of outsourced steps in the production process in house so that we can cut production costs

rather than pay anywhere from $300-$1,500 in editing services (per scene), I've invested time and energy in learning Final Cut so that I can have fun doing what the pros do - I already write a lot of our music in Soundtrack - editing is just the next logical step

unlike most other studios, Cam and I enjoy doing as much as we can - this put's our personal stamp on things and helps us stand apart from the large "factory style studios" out there....

? , as always the media is alittle late with the "newsbreak" (interpreted: obviously "britney" isn't making enough waves these days to keep the press employed.)
i first view the internet as an invalubale resource of "information" (not to be restricted to porn) i pretty much do all my shopping by net (the hours and gas i save running around town just to find i still have to order stuff "on-line" in the end.)
2nd this "free-porn" is primarily those individuals/sites/etc. which allow members to "upload" content which is produced by the members themselves (can you say "view my cam"? , betcha'can) naturally the adult industry is going to feel the bite on a market which is no longer "exclusively" their's (this might actually be the "spur" for some of you to make a better product but unfortunately for too long you have thought of the consumer as desperate to pay for anything , now feel the wraith as your companies go under.)
3rd there is no "fix" other than "adapt" or "die" (interpreted: i wish you well and much success in the years to come!)

jim