Image via Complex Original
Pornhub is the third most trafficked site in all of adult film (behind xHamster and XVIDEOS), and as the adult film industry yet again shifts standards, it's assumed the lead as arguably the best-branded of porn's most highly trafficked portals. There's of course the notion that Pornhub is progressive because, as Vice mentioned, the company's social media game is on point. However, being progressive doesn't just stop there. Given that FaltyDL debuted "Some Jazz Shit" through the site in June, Wednesday's announcement that Pornhub plans on starting a label is certainly not surprising. FaltyDL's 15 second clip has been viewed 6400-plus times on Pornhub, but intriguingly features no nudity or strong sexual content.
That being said, the idea that Pornhub Records would ideally at some point merge strong sexual content with pop-friendly music is incredible. If Pornhub as a site is viewed nearly two billion times in a month, and Psy's video for "Gangnam Style" broke one billion views in five months, a number somewhere between the two is frankly fascinating, and with impression-based site advertising driving revenue alongside potential record sales, profits for the label could be high.
That being said, given the fact that Pornhub has already dabbled in electronic music, we felt it was only fair to contemplate why Pornhub Records is a TERRIFIC idea on the cusp of the future of music.
A captive audience is already in place
There's something in marketing called a "captive audience," which is loosely defined as the user base that has no other choice but to consume your product, or consume nothing at all. The Pornhub network of websites is humongous, and the users are going to engage with these sites regardless of whether or not music actually exists. The potential fan base is already in place and are already dedicated to these websites, which is a huge advantage over competitors.
Support from poplular film stars will yield exponential results
Bree Olson, Asa Akira, Tori Black, Madison Ivy, and Jesse Jane are all sitting at or above a quarter million Twitter followers. Alexis Texas, Sunny Leone, Nikki Benz, Lisa Ann, Sasha Grey, and Jenna Jameson all have half a million followers just on this one platform. Half-hearted support from a handful of these actresses would generate traffic without very much effort at all. Once Pornhub figures out an incentive for adult film stars to lend support, the traffic from the built-in fan base would be monumental.
Pornhub has already tested the waters
It may be news to you, but Pornhub has already been making moves in the music lane for months. '90s rap star Coolio was falsely reported to land a record deal through Pornhub last month, but it definitely was confirmed in a promo shoot for a song to promote the website. While that may be reaching, we did see FaltyDL premiered a video for his In The Wild album through Pornhub. The accompanying single was one of the best performing records on the project, and we don't think that's coincidence.
They can quickly capture publishing money
Ownership is important in any lane of the entertainment industry that you happen to be working in, and Mangeek owns a lot of assets. With the addition of a record label, Pornhub has the ability to sell in-house songs to all of the sister sites, pay artists directly for music used in adult films, and will have no issues with clearance, as they will amass a catalog of music that can be used in commercials, films, movie trailers, and the like.
Appearance fees
The age-old and grueling strip club tour regiment can be a thing of the past for porn stars, as promising DJs and musicians can be mentored and marketed until bookable, keep their clothes on, and start making appearance fees for artistic performances. We're not saying that we need any more celebrity DJs in the world, but imagine a scenario where Pornhub started using their contacts and data to launch a booking agency that served a different clientele. Frat houses, conventions, and those with a little extra money in their pocket that want to host private gatherings can still pay to see their favorite adult film actors and actresses and hire them to set the mood on a musical tip.
Pornhub is bigger than just Pornhub
Pornhub started in 2007, and is now owned by a company called Mangeek that also owns RedTube, YouPorn, Tube8, Beeg, Xtube, Keez Movies, Brazzers, Reality Kings, Mofos, MyDirtyHobby, and Digital Playground, all of which are amongst the most 10,000 most trafficked websites in the United States. They also own ExtremeTube, GayTube, SpankWire, Sextube, and PornIQ, Wicket Pictures, as well as PornMD, a search engine that ties all of this content together. The foot traffic on these sites is already voluminous.
Monetization is already in place
Setting up the infrastructure for marketing and monetization is an incredibly difficult task for someone that's fresh to the game, but Pornhub has already done both. They are monetizing web cam shows and sell advertising space, and have a built-in system that's already generating money. Worth Of Web pins Pornhub alone as a website that's worth more than a billion dollars as it's currently functioning, and we imagine that monetizing music will be easier for this company than most.
The porn industry is tailor made to succeed in the current music industry
In 2013, "indepdendent" label Red Bull Records hit it big as their band AWOLNATION took dubstep's low-end bombast and blended it with pop/rock sheen to showcase what a new era Billboard-charting single could look like as supported by a label that was already an offshoot of a hugely successful brand. However, Red Bull Records is distributed by Sony, so having the major label push to get the single in front of as many eyes as possible certainly helped.
Now imagine if "Sail" were seen during the money shot scene of a film on Pornhub, that was also shown on the plethora of other sites owned by Mangeek and released by Pornhub Records. As well, let's make that track then available on iTunes, Beatport, and every other portal, and let's see what a track that gets featured on a video potentially seen by 50 million people can do. Also, let's toss in the social media push by the people in that scene, as well as a push by the portals that are showing said scene, too.
With this level of virality, would Pornhub even need distribution? Or, does this prove true the concept that pornography is the most viral content on the Internet, and that a seamless blend of porn and music (especially at-present) could prove to be more disruptive than any energy beverage's record label, or other unique scheme for the release and monetization of music.
It's a really simple way to let people more easily search for porn on Google again
As of July 3, 2014, Google banned AdWords that "promote graphic depictions of sexual acts" to include "hardcore pornography" but not depictions of "masturbation" and "genital, anal, and oral sexual activity." Of course, Pornhub gets 1.68 million visits per hour, and while it's possible that many regular Pornhub visitors have their browsers set to the site, it's just as possible that they're getting a TON of Google traffic, traffic that will be limited by this regulation. Now, if Pornhub were to be able to link sexually explicit videos to words like "deep house," "dubstep," "hard electro," and a few popular artists' names, they could easily circumvent this new regulation, while at the same time open up a new audience and quite possibly sell a few records. While we're not saying that these two concepts are linked, Pornhub being able to advertise in this manner is now absolutely possible.
Breaking new stars will be easy
For as much as making a sustainable music star is about narratives, in a digital environment it's about capturing clicks, glances, and rewarding fans with the ability to make split-second decisions involving clicking a button to purchase a track, or even if, say, the music were tacked on to some porn-related bonus with part of the proceeds being kicked back to the label.
Getting back to the business of creating compelling narratives, if an artist on a track merely says "hey I like this" as you're watching Bree Olson in a porn scene, a connection that can be parlayed into, well, pretty much anything has been made. Want this Pornhub watcher to follow this new indie artist on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook? That watcher is absolutely a part of the captive audience and likely to do so, especially if were advised to follow via an ad interrupting a scene or some other sort of new-era music industry plan. The possibilities for Pornhub to make new stars that can sustain is actually limitless.
Do we want to see a guy that we saw on Redtube as a main stage headliner at Electric Zoo? Well, we absolutely dig Jessie Andrews' deep house, and many became aware of her from her work in porn long before she ever produced any music, so we're almost certain that there's a performer that could leverage Pornhub's vast network to get there first.
