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By Aaron Tian
Pornhub has been making crazy moves in the music industry lately. They dropped a couple of risqué videos with Hi-Rez and Coolio, opened up their Song Search contest, and now they’ve announced their own label: Pornhub Records. To make sense of it all, we spoke with Pornhub representative Matt Blake to get the inside scoop on what they’ve got cooking up.
So how did you guys land on Coolio for “Take it to the Hub?”
That actually started back at the AVN Awards in January. I had thrown a Pornhub party at a strip club and Coolio was one of our VIP invitees. He showed up and we were sipping on a little tequila and I pitched him the concept of writing a song for Pornhub and then us producing a video for him with a bunch of pornstars. We were talking, we had some fun, and he liked the idea and the fact that we get 40 million visitors a day. We kept in contact and spoke every couple weeks from that point on. At a certain point our timing worked out and we made it happen.
Should we expect more Coolio x Pornhub songs?
The agreement was specifically for that one song, “Take it to the Hub.” Like I said, we have a great relationship with Coolio. If the opportunity comes up again and it’s beneficial to both parties, we’ll make it happen. I’d actually like to tell one interesting story from the video shoot, show the lighter side of Coolio. Sometimes we see some bad things in the news but he really is a good guy. We were at our first location and the neighbors had issues with us filming a music video in the community. We left that location and were scrambling to find another and we met up in a parking lot in a grocery store. While we were calling around and looking for a place to finish our shoot, Coolio ran inside to the grocery store and bought everybody popsicles. It was just a nice move by him and not something that’s come out before, but shows that when there’s a bunch of porn stars standing around in the hot sun, Coolio just wanted to help out.
Are there artists you have your eyes on for collaborations or to sign to your label?
We’re talking to a lot of people. I can’t give out any names for now, because we’re not far enough into any of our deals. We do actually have another music video coming out with somebody, but we can’t drop the names just yet. We’re very much in the process of learning and getting these going. We’re just looking into developing our musical integrations and using our platform of 40 million daily visitors however we can to give our business exposure.
Are you guys going to use your connections to porn stars to promote the music, or vice versa?
Depending on who we’re working with, starting with the Hi-Rez music video that we shot a while ago, then with Coolio and the video coming out shortly, we’ve gotten the top porn stars in the business to star in these videos. So at the end of the day, people come to pornhub.com for porn, but the philosophy that I have is that if we have a great song and there’s naked girls in it, I think we’re giving you reason to stick around.
[Hi-Rez] wrote a Pornhub song which started when he wrote to us, “If I write a Pornhub song, will you give me a premium account?” We said sure.
Let’s talk about the search for the next Pornhub anthem. What can you tell me about that?
I touched on Hi-Rez being an up-and-coming rapper that we worked with several months back. He wrote a Pornhub song which started when he wrote to us, “If I write a Pornhub song, will you give me a premium account?” We said sure, so he wrote the song and it was actually a pretty good song, so we said, “Lets shoot a music video.” We provided pornstars to shoot the video and that can be found on Pornhub.tv.
Like we said in the interview with Billboard, there’s a lot of similarities between the demographics of people who come to our site and the music community. The music community in general is huge. We have a lot of talented users who come to our site and enjoy our site, so why not see who can come up with the next great Pornhub song? Since yesterday, we’ve received over 150 submissions onto the Pornhub.com/win/songsearch, but the majority of them are not Pornhub songs. We just want to remind everybody that there has to be a mention of Pornhub in there. If it’s going to be an anthem for our website, it has to do something with Pornhub.
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Are you looking for a more comedic take, like the Coolio song?
I think it’s a mix of everything. We’re trying to see what talent is there, whether it be an EDM song with one mention of Pornhub in some crazy music or a cowboy-style song that just makes you laugh talking about Pornhub, or a rap song with a great beat. We’re really open to anything.
If you look at new music videos, they’re a lot more risqué than they used to be. The Nicki video, the J-Lo/Iggy video, they’re almost amateur porn. So it’s a good time to wet our toes in this field and see what happens.
Changing topics, why are you getting into music now? Is it just a good time, or has this been on the radar for a while?
A little bit of both. We’ve always seen similarities between the music community and our users. Also, if you look at new music videos, they’re a lot more risqué than they used to be. The Nicki video, the J-Lo/Iggy video, they’re almost amateur porn. So it’s a good time to wet our toes in this field and see what happens.
Any advice for artists who want to get involved in the Song Search or the label?
Have some fun with it, show us you’re talented, you never know what will come out with it. We’re guaranteeing 500K views, which is huge for any up-and-coming artist. We’re also offering $5,000 towards a music video. I just think it’s a great opportunity. If I had any talent whatsoever I would submit a song myself.
We’re guaranteeing 500K views, which is huge for any up-and-coming artist. We’re also offering $5,000 towards a music video. I just think it’s a great opportunity.
Are there any industries Pornhub is looking to break into after this?
At the moment, no. But don’t be shocked if you see something that has the WTF factor. [laughs] We’re open to see what’s going on in the world and the industry. You never know. Our platform is just so incredible to have the amount of traffic that we do, so to take advantage of that in different forms is really what we’re looking for.
Last question: Gun to your head, what is your all-star lineup for Pornhub Records?
Hmm, interesting question. It’s a tough one, there are so many talented people out there. Somebody like Eminem might be fun to work with. Rihanna is somebody that we would love to work with. She actually follows Pornhub on Twitter, we interact with her sometimes. You never know what could come up. Jay Z is at the top of his craft, so somebody like him would be great. I just think there are tons of people out there who would be fun to work with. If I had a wish list I guess that would be it.
Related question, is Pornhub Katie a real person who controls the entire Twitter operation?
Yes it is.
She’s killing it.
We’ll keep her… for now. [laughs]
Anything else?
I just want to stress that people should know that the Song Search is a search for a Pornhub-style song. You don’t need to say “Pornhub” every second word, but people listening to the song should know that it was made to win the contest. This is not a forum for you to try to get signed to our label.
