LOS ANGELES — Filmmakers, performers, webmasters and industry thought-leaders welcomed Day Two of XBIZ 2021, presented by Chaturbate, with several hours of networking and chat via a snazzy virtual platform that allowed for both private conversations and larger group get-togethers. More than a dozen new panels and seminars explored premium social media, the rapid evolution of the trans and gay market segments, and the latest web and tech advancements — have you heard of BERT? — that are shaping the future of adult entertainment.
"Premium Social Media: Feeding the Feed Frenzy"
An all-star lineup of savvy creators comprised the panel for “Premium Social Media: Feeding the Feed Frenzy,” moderated by XBIZ Managing Editor of Digital Media, Alejandro Freixes. As the third rapidly emerging market in the indie game rises fast to join camming and clips, premium social media distinguishes itself with a feed-based approach to monetizing not only livestreaming and recorded content, but also free-to-view and pay-to-view posts, DMs and more.
Acclaimed talent on the panel included Maitland Ward, Sophie Dee, Reya Sunshine, Savannah Solo and Romi Rain, each of whom sang the praises of platforms such as OnlyFans and FanCentro, while JustFor.fans’ founder Dominic Ford shared how his cutting-edge site offers a cornucopia of monetization options. Influencers like Tilly Toy, Saint and Romi Chase rounded out the stellar roster of both veteran and amateur personalities.
Topics examined ran the gamut from how stars price their subscriptions, customs, PPV clips and even "dick ratings," as well as cross-pollinating promotions via shoutouts (among which Sophie Dee’s multi-faceted ShoutoutExpress.com is a breakout business that facilitates many influencer-based promotions for models and advertisers), what type of content has proven especially popular for each star and the numerous ways they blend authenticity with polished shoots.
Rain shared, “I will always release exclusive content first to OnlyFans subscribers, then trickle it down to other platforms slowly, to keep content safer from piracy. The way that I like to promote besides being sly on Instagram and using Twitter, is I love gaming on Twitch. Ironically, from checking my numbers, I actually get more joins after a Twitch stream than after a cam show, so I think it’s important to explore safe-for-work streams to carefully cultivate a following.” Later, when sharing pricing, she pointed out she charges $100 a minute for customs, to avoid having too many orders to fulfill and make sure it’s worth her while.
As for Dee, who focuses on FanCentro and OnlyFans for her indie content, she emphasized the value for performers and advertisers who take advantage of her other businesses. “A lot of our influencers are buying and selling traffic these days; even though I have a big OnlyFans account, I still constantly buy shoutouts from other girls,” she said. “The main reason I had the idea for Shoutout Express is I was selling shoutouts via DMs on Instagram and it got confusing trying to find the person, remember who I spoke to, dealing with chargebacks and more.” After a first date with her boyfriend, she discussed her idea and they officially launched six months ago, gaining steam fast.
Ward, whose mainstream stardom harkens back to the sitcom days of “Boy Meets World” and now reigns as a Vixen Media Group contract star with fiery Deeper.com cinematic titles, concurred with Rain’s thoughts on SFW promotions, praising the value of funneling social media followers to premium platforms. “I get a huge amount of customs every month, via DMs, and usually charge $200 a minute, and if they want an exclusive, it goes way up, because it’s a lot of work. Usually, regular videos I price between $7 and $10. In the beginning, during my Patreon days, I would pay for everything [myself] and own everything, for piracy purposes ... I mean, there were Reddit pages with 20,000 members devoted to stealing just my content. Now it’s much better, though.”
Solo, who humbly professed that she had only been involved with releasing premium adult content for a year, has amassed enough likes and subscriptions in that short while to rival top-tier decades-long career porn stars. This is, of course, thanks in part to her comedic chops and viral-ready “Star Wars” fan hilarity on social media.
"I do fun cosplays and every time I do one, I’ll do a sexed up version of it and then an even spicier one that goes straight into my OnlyFans feed,” she shared. “I like to advertise on Twitter with things that make me happy or I find funny, and to an extent, I use TikTok, but I can’t mention OnlyFans or sex work there. It’s mostly Star Wars jokes on my TikTok, so when they join my OnlyFans they’re like, ‘I thought this was going to be dank Star Wars memes for six bucks a month,’ and I’m like, ‘Sorry, it’s my butthole, I didn’t mean to mislead you.’”
Meanwhile, Saint straddles both FanCentro, which is his main focus, and OnlyFans. “As far as my main moneymaker, it’s probably customs. I try to sell at least five customs a month, alongside my content and PPV, pushing people to request them.”
He also avoids mass-messaging too often, instead trying to cater content and interactions more personally to subscriptions. “SFW Instagram is key,” he added, “and also Reddit, for promoting and building a community."
As for Sunshine, she spreads her content across various platforms like MV Crush and OnlyFans. Then she brought up a vital nuanced point, explaining, “I’ve noticed newer models I talk to don’t realize there’s a difference between customs and exclusives, so something I like to do is resell all my customs; almost every video I make started as a custom, and fans know that when they purchase it. But if they want it to be exclusive, it’ll be infinitely more expensive."
Then, Ford discussed how JustFor.fans strives to offer more monetization options than anyone, from movie downloads to the ability to sell physical goods like shirts and “we have live camming as well; we have a custom movie menu configurator you can adjust and pay-per-view messaging too.”
He continued, “I would say a lot of money comes from customs, especially during this pandemic” and that JFF allows stars to incorporate Snapchat. “There are tons of ways to plug into the platform ... we also allow any post you add to be public or private, so you can just have one page rather than two separate accounts for different feeds."
Laurel, Chase and Toy emphasized the value of only producing content that makes you happy, which ensures videos have maximum authenticity, and how each utilize a variety of SFW social media feeds to promote their content and that of those they collaborate with. Chase said that when she does shout-outs with other models, she makes sure their engagement is legit and that their audience is a fan of the kind of more BBW-themed videos she produces. And Toy underlined how consistency and variety is key for a healthy feed.
"The Gay Market: Rulebreakers & Trendsetters"
The Content Track continued on Tuesday with an annual panel that examines the vibrant gay market — but with a twist. Moderated by XBIZ News Desk Manager JC Adams, and sponsored by Adult Time, the panel for 2021 was titled "Rulebreakers & Trendsetters" to highlight studios, performers and filmmakers known for taking risky swings in their careers.
"We are approaching a year dealing with the pandemic lockdown in one form or another," said Adams. "I realized that hearing from people, like all of you on this panel, who are known for taking big, bold swings in their careers, could really be a tonic. Everyone’s thinking about what to do next. And how to how find the courage to take a big swing, take that leap."
"And I think we can learn something from all of you, who have done exactly that," he added.
Filmmaker mr. Pam spoke about her decision to leave a comfortable job — during a pandemic lockdown, no less — with Falcon/NakedSword last spring and hang out her own shingle, Wham Bam Pictures. "What better time?" Pam said with a smile, provoking laughter from the panel. While she offers production services at any scale, she has found a successful niche over the past year helping performers perfect and polish their own self-generated content.
Legrand Wolf, the co-founder and co-owner of Carnal Media, and a performer himself, spoke eloquently about pursuing his own curiosity and interest in fetish and fantasy, despite the occasional flare-up of controversy. It was a theme echoed by activist and entrenpreneur Buck Angel, who recalled when he was quite literally the only trans male performer inside the industry. Angel's passionate drive to express his authentic self gave him the courage to pursue his dreams despite controvery.
Wolf, whose CarnalCash affiliate program includes the FTM paysite JockPussy, acknowledged the intense public scrutiny Angel faced both within the adult industry and among the public at large, and how the industry today has benefitted from his courage.
Director and CockyBoys co-founder and co-owner Jake Jaxson picked up the theme of authenticity when he detailed the decision, over a decade ago, to purchase the company, which was then known for gay-for-pay content, and radically transform it. He described occasional stumbles; the search for authenticity doesn't always vibe with an audience, he said. As Wolf, Angel and Pam described during the panel, the need for genuine connection — and exploring a topic or genre that simply seems like it would be fun — is what makes their work personally fulfulling.
CockyBoys exclusive Levi Karter described his decision to come out as a drag performer, despite extreme trepidation about a potential backlash from fans who idolize him as a sex star. Although drag and a trans identity are vastly different things, Buck Angel empathized with Karter's decision to challenge traditional masculine norms. Karter thanked Jaxson, and CockyBoys' RJ Sebastian, for providing him with a stable base and steady employment, which allows him to explore the various sides to his personality (Karter is also the subject of the CockyBoys documentary "Leave It to Levi").
Sister Roma, the creative director of Falcon/NakedSword, paid tribute to Tim Valenti, the founder of NakedSword, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, and Chuck Holmes, the legendary founder of Falcon Studios, which marks its 50th anniversary in 2021. Both businessmen are known for continuing to innovate and evolve despite the tremendous risk, noted Roma, of alienating your company's core audience.
Roma reminded the panelists, and audience members participating in a lively chatroom, that pioneers like Chuck Holmes faced harrassment and persistent social stigma and risked jail time for their work and the industry today stands on their shoulders.
Adams also offered a warm tribute to the late Jerry Douglas, the influential writer-director who passed last week at the age of 84.
"Grooby Presents: Trans Trends 2021"
Longtime Grooby Creative and Editorial Director Kristel Penn, with producer Fivestar, co-hosted the annual XBIZ Show panel on the trans market. Joining them were performers Domino Presley, Foxxy and Casey Kisses, director Adam Christopher, performer and entrepreneur Wendy Williams and producer Kelly Quell.
Reflecting concerns expressed throughout the day from all corners of adult, the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of production restrictions was a primary topic of discussion. Fivestar shared that Kink.com had found success selling content on clip sites. Presley, who has mainly worked outside of the studio system, has continued to make most of their money through OnlyFans. Kisses, meanwhile, told the panel that while the pandemic has been difficult for many people, it has been great for performers who already work from home.
The forced time off that was caused by COVID did push many on the panel to expand their skill sets. “I’ve become a lot more of a businesswoman because I have more control over my content,” Foxxy explained to the panel. “It was nice to become more of a businesswoman, in addition to being a performer.”
Some of the performers invested in better equipment to produce higher quality content. And as Quell stated, “COVID has been a way for me to formulate my goals.”
Another topic of the panel was about PornHub and its recent changes. Kisses shared that she has benefited from Pornhub’s recent purge of unverified accounts because it has led to less competition on the platform. Additionally, many on the panel agreed that Pornhub's rapid changes serve as a reminder not to invest all their energy on one platform.
Given that any company could be gone overnight, it remains crucial to diversify where creators put their content and how they market themselves.
"Web-Tech: Latest Advances Shaping Online Entertainment"
The pitch for this Tech Track session, sponsored by YourPaysitePartner, was, “Adult has always been at the forefront of innovation and the adoption of early technology.” The panelists delivered on this pitch as they outlined numerous ways in which cutting-edge technology is making a difference for the industry.
A case in point: The digital rights management tools being used by major adult sites to combat piracy are now making their way to individual models marketing their own content online. Specifically, DigiRegs has created a “cost-effective single-video-use platform for digital rights where models can upload their content and be charged 20 cents per file to protect it,” said DigiRegs’ Mark Bauman. Better yet, this system searches for and removes pirated content by comparing the audio/video to what it has on file, he said.
VXPages’ Florian Tauber outlined his company’s ‘Homepages’ system, which gives content creators and models ‘cancel-free’ websites for their content and fans that is separate from their social media pages. Having a homepage allows talent to “collect their customers in a safe spot ... because their social accounts can be banned or whatever can happen and they can lose their assets,” he said. “We see a homepage basically as the ‘safe harbor’ for your own business as a creator or model.”
Enginefood.com’s Stewart Tongue then blew panelists’ minds when he talked about DALL-E, the OpenAI platform’s creative writing AI. “It's good enough right now to write term papers to the point where college professors will be unable to determine whether a human wrote it or an AI wrote it,” said Tongue.
This said, DALL-E’s current value is not as a written word generation tool, but rather as an enhanced alternative to traditional SEO analyses. “The AI is able to correlate data from all aspects of your site, rather than looking individually the way SEO used to,” he explained. “The AI is now good enough to check your social media accounts, every word that's on your website, anywhere, all of your metadata, all of the images and so on, and then make a correlated view of your site and use that to establish your rankings.”
Google is now using this AI in its BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representation for Transformers) algorithm, which is affecting which links it recommends to users. “There are a lot of people probably in this room who lost a ton of traffic about six weeks ago, because of it (BERT),” said Tongue.
Click here for XBIZ's coverage of the week's events.
Reporting by JC Adams, Peter Berton, Alejandro Freixes and Nicholas Gottlieb.
