I thought our trade magazines AVN.com and XBIZ.com might actually carry a story like the following. Trade magazines in other industries actually occasionally carry some hard facts: not ours. What we can expect is more press releases and moon beams.

The Industry Is In Distress

From MikeSouth.com

You have heard a lot about it lately: there’s no doubt that Porn Valley is in distress. Product sales are half what they were two years ago and a quarter what they were four years ago. But up until recently talent costs have continued to sky rocket.

Not anymore. I am seeing emails to producers from agencies almost daily offering girls for 600-700 dollars for a boy girl, thats what the levels were in the 90s. With a huge influx of girls wanting to be the next Jenna combines with a slowdown across the board in production talent rates are bout to fall from the current artificially high levels. Gonzo performers are the ones feeling the most heat, because those are the companies cutting back the most. many are outright closing their doors.

Male talent rates have risen even faster than female but those are now falling faster than the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Guys that were getting 900-1000 dollars a scene can now be had for 200. Many guys are offering to work for even less.

Just because a girl is new no longer gives her any intrinsic value, the agencies all have more girls than they can keep working with new ones coming in daily. The plain janes simply arent getting work at all, but the agencies continue to sign them up knowing they will shoot a few times then fall off the map. Only the really pretty ones can survive.

The industry is moving more and more towards the old school features and glamourous girls.

Some companies still pay their non contract girls the artificially high rates but those days are coming to a close as well I’m hearing of more than one big company offering the girls 800 for a b/g scene, take it or leave it and guys get 200.

Outside Porn Valley talent rates havent risen nearly as much, producers can shoot in Miami for example and pay the talent less than half what they have to in L.A. and this is yet another reason why the internet shooters are eating the gonzo companies lunches. Look at Bang Brothers for example, they shot the content for their websites, they capitalized it and monetized it till it had no more value, then they dumped it onto DVD and sold it again, all of that part being found money…Hard for a gonzo company shooting new content for DVD distribution to compete with that, and it isn’t just Bang Brothers…look at AVN most of the companies seeing success now in that market are websites cum DVD producers.

Porn Valley better stop worrying about who is giving away an ipod and start worrying about how they survive the next few years, hint…It wont be by giving away ipods.

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