With the new year upon us, XBIZ recently asked some of the adult industry’s top content experts to reveal their predictions for major trends in the year ahead. Here is what they had to say:
Jack Avalanche
CEO, Cherry Pimps
Moving into 2017, we see the key trend still focused on better content and more involvement, whether it be live or virtual reality, 3D, or some combination. Most companies have finally returned to making cool content and products that will inevitably engage the consumer and retain them. -Jack Avalanche, Cherry Pimps
Moving into 2017, we see the key trend still focused on better content and more involvement, whether it be live or virtual reality, 3D, or some combination. Most companies have finally returned to making cool content and products that will inevitably engage the consumer and retain them. Porn stars, cam girls, and virtually every webmaster, see the value in live content, and that coupled with the drive for VR will likely prove to make 2017 very exciting and engaging.
Andy Alvarez
President, Webmaster Central
Not since the mobile boom in the early 2000s have companies such as Facebook and Google made such investments in an approaching trend as they have in virtual reality. I see this as the future. We here at Webmaster Central see this as a clear indication that virtual reality will quadruple in size in 2017. We are currently shooting a few VR scenes each week, so we will be ready for the ever-increasing demand for VR content.
Anna Lee
President, Holofilm Productions
I see [several trends] in VR for 2017, including haptic enabled content that syncs or is produced specifically for haptic devices; and more female POV content, with the rise in hardware and headset sales increasing demand for this material. The beginnings of truly immersive and interactive content (think of the Seymour Butts “Choose Your Own Adventure” CDs, but in VR), will also lead to the infant stages of AR content. Also ahead are more narrative and cinematic scenes utilizing various camera angles, etc. 2016 was a solid year of VR content production that saw a rise in popularity of the male POV, one-position GFE content of about 20-30 minutes in length. This is giving away to multi-angle, cinematic stories, with multiple positions and solid narrative. This will be improved upon and become the standard (if it isn’t already) as the cameras, hardware and software we shoot and edit with get better. Audio will improve. 2017 should see the release of full-length adult VR features, along with more amateur VR content, as cameras that produce stitched footage out of the box are now able to get in the hands of amateurs — bring on that content. The sky is the limit really. With the rate everything is improving, what I have touched upon may only be the beginnings of what we may see. A year is a very long time in the tech space.
Matt Gleason
Content Acquisition and Distribution Manager, AEBN
One of the biggest upcoming trends we are seeing in content is virtual reality, especially with VR headsets becoming more readily available and taking the market by storm. We are finalizing the last details for an announcement soon on VR content, something unlike any other VOD provider is currently providing, so stay tuned. Aside from VR content on the rise, we’ve seen a large growth in ‘high fashion,’ glam, 4K content. The higher the gloss and more polished the better. It is selling even without big name stars being the main draw. Other trends on the rise include transsexual, big natural breasts, and feature releases, while we are seeing a small decline in taboo, BDSM and orgies.
Steven Grooby
President, Grooby Productions
As far as we are concerned, content is content and it still sells in the same format as it always has for us, through photo and video sets. We are still testing on VR and expect to release early this year, and while we shoot some 4K content, we are not seeing a massive demand for it. We don’t rely on special delivery methods, we simply focus on website memberships, which are our core business — and we expect that to continue throughout 2017.
Colin Rowntree
CEO, Wasteland
The two trends for 2017 will certainly be the continued growth of shooting with Ultra High-Definition (4K-6K) video cameras, and also the rapid expansion of the virtual reality genre. As for 4K, UHD cameras now come in a wide variety of models and price points, and although there is currently no reliable way to distribute true 4K-6K, the footage is glorious — even when downsized to 1080p for internet streaming. This sets the new benchmark for video production, with the added bonus of master footage archived by producers for release when distribution eventually catches up. Regarding VR, I anticipate we will see tremendous growth in that sector now that more options are coming available for VR cameras at a wide variety of price points and capabilities. This will be fueled by the massive effort being put into VR by the gaming industry for both distribution methods, as well as headsets for all consumer tastes and budgets. VR games and porn — a match made in heaven!
Laurel Hertz
Co-Founder, Arlcash.com
Virtual reality is a trend that will create a lot of exciting content opportunities for rough sex/bondage fans on our site, PascalsSubSluts.com. From growth in live content, to expansion in the augmented and virtual reality space, it is clear that 2017 is poised to become a watershed year in adult content production and consumption, while setting the stage for further growth ahead.
Sam Rakowski
President, SK Intertainment
We aren’t content producers in the traditional sense within the adult industry, but we are still putting out an immense amount of content for our users daily. When I think about content and what is important now heading into 2017 and beyond, it’s all about how it’s curated, organized and delivered.
In addition to obviously wanting to create and deliver the best possible quality of content, once we have users engaged in consuming our videos we want to suck them into our vast library and make it hard for them to leave. It’s all about ease of discovery ... not making your users have to work to find more of what they want. If you can do that effectively through meticulous tagging and a slick UX you will be in a far better position to dramatically boost average session duration and retain paying members a lot longer.
Kenny B.
YourPaysitePartner
We see more content producers pushing into the VR space. Our group of companies has been investing heavily in VR and will be rolling our various sites in both the straight and gay market in the first quarter of 2017. We are also dealing with more producers of higher-end content with top named performers — there doesn’t seem to be any slowdown in on the production scene and I hope to see higher-end content being produced in the coming year.
