While free pornography is easier to access than ever, people – including in Belgium and Brussels – are increasingly paying for sex-related content. But what impact does a platform like OnlyFans have on the porn industry?
As the popularity of OnlyFans continues to rise, the porn industry has started to adapt. But are these platforms changing the way people create and consume porn? While the Brussels Porn Film Festival is taking place in the Belgian capital, The Brussels Times asks those who know best.
"The platformisation of the porn economy is really interesting. The best thing OnlyFans is doing is reintroducing the monetisation of porn, and reintroducing the culture of paying for your porn," explains Miguel Soll, a Brazilian photographer and one of the festival's co-founders.
Paying for your porn
Soll points out that if you look back on the history of porn, it runs parallel with the history of technological advancement and innovation. "You have the beginning of cinema and silent films, later there was VHS, then DVD, and then websites."
"When people went to these cinemas, they paid for their porn. The same is true if they bought or rented a VHS or DVD. There was always money involved," he says. "But this stopped when websites like PornHub or RedTube appeared: their business model is piracy."
As a result, people stopped paying for porn because everything was free on the internet. To this day, the offer of free pornographic content is easier to access online than ever.
"When OnlyFans appeared, it created a shift. And in a way, it took away some power from production companies and dictate the production and distribution of porn," Soll says. "With platforms like OnlyFans, performers have more freedom: they choose their own acts, partners, ways of filming... They choose everything about their content."
Credit: Belga
This, he stresses, reintroduced monetisation in pornography. "Now, people have started paying for porn again – more so than ten years ago. They are willing to give money to have a more personal experience with a performer."
For Nova Lov, who is a transgender performer and director in Brussels, the lack of control over what happens with your content once it is posted is a big issue. "As a trans woman processing her own transition, putting my image on these kinds of platforms is difficult because I do not control who is going to see it."
This also creates some kind of precarity: to be able to make enough money from content posted on these platforms, you need an online presence that is much bigger than your OnlyFans following. "So you have to be constantly online: talking, engaging, creating, reinventing yourself. It's very complex."
Not so passive income
For Soll, another downside is that people have become used to watching fast videos, meaning narrative porn – which takes much longer to shoot and produce – is a bit on the downfall.
This is also one of the reasons why Jamie Butine, a performer and full-service sex worker in Brussels, does not use the platform. "I think OnlyFans is a great platform for people who know how to use it. For me, it is difficult. It means being on your phone constantly and creating a lot of content, and it takes a lot of time, energy and effort."
"Contrary to what people think, it is really not easy money. I admire the people who are able to do that, because it takes a lot of work to create a fan base, and get this kind of so-called 'passive' income," she said. "In reality, it is not really passive at all."
The Brussels Porn Film Festival is taking place from 1 to 4 May. More information can be found here.
