Don't get me wrong, there's a place in this industry for comps. Stores should carry comps for those customers who want to buy that product. They should COMPLIMENT your New Release section, not nullify the need to have one. Too many stores that I've seen ONLY carry comps because they don't see the point in paying more for a New Release. I just feel that is the incorrect method to use when buying. Our industry is supported by the regular customers, and the regular customers want to see something new. Of course, there's a guy like Draxxx that is collecting comps for certain girls and that's great. However, keep this in mind, all those scenes in that comp were in a New Release at some point in time. Without New Releases you don't have new comps. If stores just stock their shelves with comps, then the new release market goes down and the incentive to create new titles is gone. Do you want to see an industry where Leisure Time is still chopping up the same scene into a thousand different comps under a thousand different "studio" names? And how come you seem to want to give companies like Leisure Time a pat on the back when for years they've misled customers with putting girls on the box that weren't in the movie, putting out titles called "Asians" with 1 asian girl and then 3 hours and 50 minutes of non-asians. How many annoying phone sex ads do you want to sit through? And Leisure Time isn't the only company pumping out tons of cheap product anymore. There's easily 5 or 6 more companies doing the same thing.
But its neither the stores' fault nor the customers'. The porn companies offer their comps at such a low purchase price that the stores can offer them at a low selling price and still make a huge profit.The industry must keep this in mind not the customer. For example Wicked released their first Carmen Hart comp hot on the heels of the first movies. Who can blame a customer for buying "Forever Carmen" instead of the original features? Perhaps the people in the industry think DVD won't last long anyway and that's the reason they don't care about long-term effects of their release policy on the customer's buying behavior?
I don't honestly believe that the studios WANT their movies to be sold so low. And you can't set mandatory pricing since we live in a free market and all. And this illuminates the problem that got this thread going. Wicked, Vivid, Sin City, etc. don't want their comps to be sold cheap, but there's companies out there that will 'release' seemingly 1000 comps a year at a cheap price. And the stores aren't discriminating enough to see the difference. When Leisure Time makes 1000 comps this year and sells them for $1.50 and every store buys them, what is someone like Wicked supposed to do when they are trying to sell their comps for $5 or $6. If you want to compete in that area you've almost got to lower yourself to what Leisure Time is doing. This wouldn't be a problem if stores said "hey LT is cheaper, but the quality is crap", and then bought better quality comps, but that doesn't happen, the stores buy the cheapest stuff. This is like a micro version of the current China/United States trade deficit. Vivid is like the Made in the USA products, and Leisure Time is like the cheap Chinese products. What do you find on the shelves at Wal Mart?
If the market is "over saturated" with mediocre or poor-quality porn, then don't buy it. That's my motto. I simply won't buy inferior material; I don't care how low the price is. If customers don't like cookie-cutter porn, then don't pay for it. Go find something else to do.
I agree that there is an onslaught of poor quality porn but apparently there is a market for them and I believe that the people that buy comps are in the majority who wouldn't know Jada Fire from Aurora Jolie but just want to see people fucking at a cheap price. This IMHO is the best era to a porn consumer the choices are just astounding that I could not have been imagined 5-8 years ago but the business model of "More porn for less consumers" cannot last as another poster mentioned and I believe that there may be an "implosion" in the industry within the next 5 years leaving us with less companies. ___Eurobabes Rule!!!!
While DVD sales are down it seems that downloads are on the rise. I'd be curious to see how far down numbers really are as opposed to just spread thinner than ever before. If it's true that we are producing more porn than is being consumed then eventually the market will correct itself. The people making low quality porn will fall off leaving only the best. If it's not true then more an dmore people will join in carve out their niches and we'l have more and better porn than ever before. That said I know there has got to be a hey I want to start making porn advice thread on here somewhere. Since I'm sure I'm not the first person to start spinning wheels on that concept around here and hopefully somebody has gotten through it so I can avoid as many mistakes and have as much of the planning done RIGHT as possible before I attempt to put wheel to road.
12 to 15 years ago, media analysts looked at the idea of 500 cable networks and the rise of the internet and predicted that networks would be dedicated to serving several, specialized demographics. The idea would be that "there would something for everyone." IMHO, it hasn't turned out to be the panacea that some envisioned. Distributors don't want to serve small demographics; they want to serve large demographics. Big numbers means big money. I believe that's why many porn distributors produce generic porn. I've seen videos called Tag-Teamed Milfs. The idea: sell a video to the threesome crowd AND the milf crowd. So, there may be a video called Big Boob Anal Teens... for the Big Boob crowd AND the anal crowd AND the teen crowd. Try to please EVERYBODY and it leads to mediocrity, I think.
I don't disagree with that statement about trying to serve large markets. That said I think you might be putting to fine toothed a comb on things. I mean what specialized porn are you not able to find? For that matter I think everything that anybody wants to see on TV has been given a shot just some things don't stick. That's another thing that I would be interested in finding out though is how much porn is bought through stores vs the internet. I mean if for no other reason than better selection I rarely walk into an adult store.
For the average retailer I don't really think "oversaturation" is the big problem many of you seem to think it is. I have yet to see a retailer with an actual "brick and mortar" store try to carry everything. they all typically carry the sure things like VIVID, JULES JORDAN, EVIL EMPIRE, RED LIGHT DISTRICT, etc., and a few second/third tier companies like BABYDOLL etc., and a couple of companies who do inexpensive comps like LIESURE TIME and MAVERICK. They tend to not buy every title a company puts out but rather go with themes/genres/stars that seel well in that particular store. DEVIL'S FILMS may put out tons of DVDs in a month but that retailer might mostly buy their interracial or MILF titles because that's what moves in that store. If it's a small start up company the retailer might try a few of that companies titles to see if they move units. If not the retailer simply doesn't buy anymore. I have yet to see a store that carries everything.
Well, for example, I've written emails asking for different milf movies. I'd like milf movies with good-looking 40 something women wearing jeans, t-shirts or whatever women wear while doing laundry or attending PTA meetings. Not the 28 year old with superb makeup and fishnet stockings and stileto shoes. Seems like everywhere I look, the stars are dressing the same. I've tried the amateur section, but I haven't found that realistic milf movie. ::Sigh:: Or maybe I want too much. We can't have everything.
Many companies flooded the market with hundreds of compilations. Especially in Germany, many store owners are only buying the cheapest DVDs, and only very few high priced DVDs. At first, the compilations sold well, but later, more and more customers complained, about the weak picture, that these DVDs arent running 8 hours, but only 5 or 6 hours, the annoying sex telephone commercials, that the scenes are hacked together, some scenes are recycled several times, e.g. in Sampler "XY" and in Sampler "YZ". Many were angry and cancelled their membership in the sex shop. I think these former customers are now looking in the net for free porn. Real collectors - like me and many others - still want a DVD ( or video, or film ) - with a cover, not a download. They respect the work of a porn company and will pay a good price for good porn. I would never pay a cent for a (legal) download, because I have no original DVD, no cover, nothing.
I'd say that the biggest source of porn saturation is porn made in the past. Porn movies can be preserved indefinitely. And if the lady is sexy, like Samantha Strong for example has been, then watching her scenes is pretty enjoyable even now. Another good example is Seka. She was a very attractive lady. And I would enjoy watching her scenes now too. Sex in the past was just as good as it is now. Because sex is a human function, and people are still as human now as they've been 10, 20, or 30 years ago. I think many porn fans have no problem with enjoying porn made in the past. The only problem I might have is watching scenes of porn ladies who ended up in some kind of a tragedy, such as suicide, or untimely death from an accident, or an HIV infection. But such tragedies are relatively rare for porn stars. Most past porn stars have lived their lives well, as far as I know. And watching their scenes I certainly enjoy, even when I know that these porn stars are much older now and probably aren't as attractive as they used to be. Better quality of pictures today makes today's porn a little better to watch. But the main turn on for me is the sex and not fancy photography. I'd rather see better sex-action than better photography, if I had to choose between the two.
