Porn proves internet not to blame for sales slumps

A recent article in the National Post reminds us yet again that the claims by the RIAA and MPAA and whatever other AAs there might be out there are just not holding water. It turns out that porno is selling extremely well on DVD (and likely VHS too), despite the "filesharing challenges" that are apparently obliterating CD sales and now starting to cut into DVD sales as well. The article also notes that porn sales went from $2.1 billion to $4 billion plus between 1993 and 1999. Now, 5 years later the sales have topped $12.6 billion (all figures are so far in Yankee greenbacks).

Er, wait though, how does that work? In the years of crazy filesharing, sales have incresed by about 320% over a 5 year span. If this already seems amazing and crazy at first glance, think about this: which movie genre has the most 'presence' on the internet? Porn, obviously. Which genre is covered the most on filesharing networks? Porn again. What do you have to specifically avoid on the internet lest you see it for free? Porn. So how on earth can these organizations keep a straight face when they tell you that US$3 billion was lost to filesharing in 2004 by the Motion Picture Association of America? After all, lots more free porn is available than free mainstream movies. So why not a big outcry about lost porn sales due to the internet?

Naturally part of the answer is that porn is done by smaller companies with bigger legal fish to fry. Also people involved in the porn industry don't like stirring up too much trouble, which class action lawsuits certainly fit into. But that only covers part of the tale. The big part of this story has to be that internet exposure, even in the form of filesharing, translates into big dollars.

Well, that and that pornographic movies have to be horribly easy to create. From here on in, I'm talking in Canadian pesos, incidently:
1) Rent a warehouse space that can be dressed up for sets... you really only need to rent it for a fortnight
2) Buy some cheap walls and office/home supplies (the latter can be sold later to recoup much of these costs) and decorate them up in said warehouse
3) Rent some good quality cameras and booms and mixing equipment. Nothing has to be cutting edge, just good enough so the DVD on a 27" TV doesn't notice the difference. You only need to rent them for 2-3 days.
4) Pay for some Y-chromosomed talent. This is, of course, remarkably easy. The creator/director is probably also the writer/producer, so you really only have to hire some camera wags and grips. Cameras aren't that difficult to operate, and half the applicants would probably pay you for the priviledge. Ditto the male actor roles, where the requirement (have sex with hot girl over and over again) is a lot less challenging than half the jobs on this site. I mean geesh, for this production you don't even have to cater!
5) Pay for your vagina-equipped star(s). The naive would think this to be your largest expense. I doubt it. (2) would cost you around $6000 I imagine, thought this might be even an over-estimate. Just take a look at this list of girls and tell me how much you think you'd really be set back by getting them to be your talent? $2000 seems like the high-end. you ask each of those girls if they'd be in a porn for $1500 and they'd likely agree. Hell, even this list of less slutty girls are probably only $2500 away from being in a porno. And for every one that turns you down for less than $50,000, you'd get two or three who would have said yes if you offered $1000 and a good pseudonym so Mommy and boyfriend never found out. We were discussing this yesterday at work, and the general consensus was that the waitresses we worked with would pretty much all do it for $2000 or less. So that's three girls for the cost of the camera equipment.

Now you've put your porn together, and slapped it on a DVD ($30 for a 50-spool of DVD-Rs at A&B Sound), and sold it. The article above says the prices are under $50 now. Now if the whole operation cost you about $10,000 and you charged $30 per unit, barring shipping and promotion costs you would recoup your ten grand after a mere 334 sales. Let's say you went to $20, then you need 501 sales. How hard can it be to sell 500 copies of a porn? There are tons of adult video stores in Edmonton... even if each only bought a copy and you cut it down to $15 for them (typically the movie industry charges rental places more...three guesses which practise is likely the better idea) you'd already be two-thirds to your total without a single private sale. A couple hundred on a website with promotion and suddenly you can sell a few hundred more, and boom you've just made a profit.

When you can do that with a mainstream movie, then perhaps the RIAA and MPAA can blame falling sales on the internet.