On a recent Saturday night, Savannah Stern was at a party in Santa Monica and didn't wear anything but a feather scarf, he made $300 and went out to play for seven hours.
More than 350 hard veterans-
Core Porn got the job by earning extra cash and networking.
But at the 35 th anniversary party of Hustler magazine, the word is not exciting, especially among about 75 women working there.
"At least five girls I haven't seen in a while came up and said to me, 'Savannah, are you working?
Stern said he started working in the industry four years ago, and, like most adult actors, he used art names.
"I have to say, 'No, it's not true, 'and they all say, 'Yes, neither am I.
"The adult entertainment business centered on the San Fernando Valley has experienced several downturns because of the emergence of home video in the 1980 s.
But this time, the industry is not dealing with a weak economy.
The increasing amount of free content on the Internet has weakened consumers' willingness to buy pornographic films and the ability of many workers to make a living in business.
For 23-year-old Stern, jobs in the porn industry have fallen sharply over the past year.
She has changed from working four or five days a week to one day, and now the employer is pressing her to be a male --
The $700 female sex scene, deducted a 30% discount from past industry standards of $1,000.
Less than two years ago, Stern earned close to $150,000 a year, and sometimes he refused to work and drove a Mercedes. Benz CLK 350.
Now, she is actively looking for work opportunities to earn nearly $50,000 a year.
What about the Mercedes?
She replaced it with a used Chevrolet Trailblazer. -
From her parents.
"The opportunities in this industry are really disappearing," Stern said . ".
"There is a lot of pressure.
"Industry insiders estimate that revenue from most adult production and distribution companies has dropped by 30% to 50% units since 2007, and the number of new films has dropped sharply.
"We 've been through a recession before, but we 've never been hit in every way like this," said Mark Mingjing, head of the mirror girl talent agency, who has been working in the porn industry since 1995.
Dion Jurasso, owner of the porn production company's battle zone, said: "This is the free item that kills us, and it won't go away, and the company's business has dropped about 50% in the last three years.
Pornography is not the only part of the media industry struggling with these issues.
But its problems seem to be even more serious.
While Internet piracy has forced a huge change in the music industry and has begun to influence movies and television, it has turned the game upside down for adult entertainment.
Of the 100 top websites in the United States, at least fiveS.
According to the Internet traffic ranking service Alexa, is a free pornographic website in the industry known as "tube website. com.
Some of their content is amateur work uploaded by users, some from cheap back-office directories, but most of them are pirated.
Compared with TMZ and Huffington Post, websites such as Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube attract more users.
Porn sites are even bigger than Pirate Bay, the top portal for illegally downloading movies, TV shows and music.
What is frustrating for porn producers and publishers in Silicon Valley is that none of these sites seem to make much money.
Suzann Knudsen, marketing director at PornoTube, said the site's parent company adult entertainment broadcasting network uses it to attract customers to pay for video on demand.
"Porn is not a piggy bank," she said . "
"The real value of it is traffic.
"The adult entertainment business, formerly a pioneer in home video, satellite and cable, and digital distribution, now finds itself at the forefront of other industries in the entertainment industry.
"In the adult business, the death of the DVD business is faster than the mainstream business," co-
The chairman of the adult industry giant Vivid Entertainment, who estimates his company's revenue has fallen by more than 20% this year.
"We have always said that once the internet takes off, we will be fine," he added . ".
"We never thought we would compete with people who give away for free.
"There are many other signs of suffering in the porn industry.
This year, the audience at the annual trade show, the adult entertainment fair, held in Las Vegas, dropped by 20%. Pay-per-
According to a person familiar with the cable and satellite TV business, as the main source of revenue for the industry, view programming is down about 50% from its peak three or four years ago.
With no analyst or economist tracking, reliable income and employment numbers in the adult industry do not exist.
Adult Video News was estimated to be worth $13 billion in 2006, but Paul fisquiin, editor of the industry publication, said the figure was "a well-founded guess ".
"Almost all companies in our industry are privately held and they put cards on their chests," said Diane Duke, executive director of the free speech alliance, industrial trade group.
Thousands of people working in the adult entertainment industry feel the effects of the economic downturn.
Kelly Labanco doesn't need industry estimates to know what's going on.
A makeup artist who has worked in the porn industry for five years is half the job she found a year ago, and her salary has dropped from a high of $250 an hour to less than $100.
"A lot of companies say they don't even need makeup artists right now, and girls can do it themselves," Labanco said . " She returned to her previous job to do free music promotion for paying bills.
Even the biggest event in the industry is not worth the past experience of staff like Labanco.
Last year, she and a friend made $8,000 in makeup for a week at the adult entertainment fair.
This year: $1,200.
Caroline Pearce, an adult film actor who lives in Las Vegas but works on a flight to Los Angeles, says many companies are pressing her to spend less money on more plays.
"Instead of paying you $800 to do it, they will pay you $1,200," she explained . ".
As economic pressure increases, many performers have changed their minds about what they are willing to do --screen.
Previously, women received high bonuses for unusual sex scenes.
This is usually no longer the case.
Porn director Matt Morningwood said: "The girls we got a few years ago were OK, but not top-notch models, and we sometimes pay $2,500, "refers to a woman and multiple male partners he shot for the site.
"Now some of the top
Tier models will do this scenario for us and you will probably see $1,800.
I am happy for the film, but I feel sorry to take advantage of the girl's situation.
"The only growth market most executives see is mobile devices because they let consumers watch porn anywhere in relative privacy.
As a big company in the US mobile content portalS.
For example, Verizon does not allow explicit adult content.
But, like cable and satellite companies in the 1990 s, they may change their minds when they see potential profits.
"Anyone betting on porn as a meaningful driver of mobile network traffic and revenue will make the wrong choice based on history," said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research . ".
Adult performers with a large number of followers may continue to thrive as they often work under guaranteed contracts and have loyal fans buying all their work.
The business managers of the two industry stars Belladonna and Kirkpatrick say their clients are using their celebrities to make money in other ways, such as dancing in exotic clubs, authorize your name to sex toys and underwear.
"The economy forces us to move in other directions, such as tangible goods," said Evan Seinfeld . "
Run his wife Patrick and run Teravision, her production company.
But for the "middle class" of the industry, these opportunities do not exist.
"At this point, if you haven't built a good one yet
"Well known names, it's hard to keep working," said performer Alexa Jordan . ".
Savannah Stern is adapting to this reality.
She is shooting scenes for her own subscription site and is planning to visit exotic dance clubs to make money from her name as much as she can.
After that, she hopes to go to college to get a degree in interior design and work in the real estate development and contracting business at home.
"I hope I will never fall into it," Stern said of her career in pornography . ".
"When you get used to a certain lifestyle, it's hard to reduce and realize that this may not be forever. "--ben. fritz@latimes.