NEW YORK — The New York Times recently looked at the growing world of adult video clip sites and the artists driving this vibrant market segment.
In a feature article by Jacob Bernstein, “How OnlyFans Changed Sex Work Forever,” the prestigious paper examined the profound changes shaping the adult entertainment industry, where performers are taking more control over their own careers — and one of the arenas, where this is most in evidence, is in the rise of video clip sites such as OnlyFans.
Typically, the clips are self-produced by the talent that appears in these productions, with clip sites providing a creative, fun outlet for content creators seeking to monetize their persona, personality, and talents, with Bernstein noting that fans “may pay her to help him achieve an orgasm, though she is not a prostitute. He may purchase erotic videos from her, though she is not a porn star.”
Bernstein describes how OnlyFans’ subscribers pay models and social media influencers a fee that ranges from around $5 to $20 a month to view “imagery too racy for Instagram.”
“Racy” is an apt word because Bernstein discovered that increasing the porn value may actually decrease the profit potential for performers embracing this medium.
“Models who join the site often presume that their subscribers will increase in number if they post more often and make the content more explicit. The ‘more often’ part is true. The ‘more explicit’ part is not,” Bernstein explains. “At a time when anyone with a smartphone or small studio can become his or her own pornographer, and content is often free, the hottest site in the adult entertainment industry is dominated by providers who show fewer sex acts and charge increasing fees depending on how creative the requests get.”
The article profiles various performers, including Australian Jem Wolfie, OnlyFans’ most popular personality, who reportedly enjoys the support of some 10,000 subscribers paying $10 a month for access to her softcore feed; along with New Yorker Matthew Camp, who calls his clips “online go-go dancing,” and Dannii Harwood.
“Tumblr was filled with the most extreme sexual experiences you could see. And I think a lot of people were turned off by that. It’s not what they’re looking for,” Camp confided. “They want more intimate experiences. They want a boyfriend experience. They want to fantasize about someone that they want to have sex with and not feel disgusted by it.”
“You can get porn for free,” Harwood revealed. “Guys don’t want to pay for that. They want the opportunity to get to know somebody they’ve seen in a magazine or on social media. I’m like their online girlfriend.”
Being an online girlfriend running a clip store is a preferable option for many performers that once had to supplement their income through escorting or other means — such as 21-year-old Chanel Santini, a two-time XBIZ Award winner as Trans Performer of the Year, who moved to Las Vegas and began shooting porn for as little as $400 per scene, which she supplemented through escorting and retail work in a clothing shop.
Now, an accomplished clip artist, Santini has a message for the director who told her that the only way to make a living in porn was to also be a prostitute.
“I’m pulling in tens of thousands of dollars every month just posting content online,” Santini concludes. “I don’t have to escort anymore. I don’t have to do that. Guess you were wrong!”
The full article can be read here.
