My family have always been self-employed business people, so my earliest memories are of them working and developing their various businesses. This entrepreneurial spirit was demonstrated to me very early on and as a result, I was always interested in running my own business. My first was actually selling really cool pens to my classmates in year 4, which was stopped by the principal once he was made aware of what I was doing.
Apparently, this was a no-no in primary school.
Later, I got into the music industry, starting performing in local bands when I was 15, moving onto roles in management of bands, venues and one-off events as I got older. I served on official boards and help develop large projects involving the industry.
Yes, I am being purposely vague. You can work out why.
Working in the music industry across multiple levels means I was able to view it from a variety of angles, and look at what makes certain artists, events and ideas successful or not.
To me, it appears that the music industry people and people in the independent adult content creation industry share similar challenges when it comes to growth. What you need to know and what is required to grow in the businesses of music can be applied to that of independent adult content creation.
Here are my thoughts.
Technical Mastery
When you start out, your technical mastery of your individual art form isn’t always the best. There is growth and development to be had before you can progress any further.
In the music industry, this stats at learning how to actually play your instrument, moving onto how to develop songs and eventually how to record them.
The same applies in the porn industry; you need to know how to perform a particular act for the camera, how operate your equipment and how to edit your content so that it is enjoyable for your audience.
All of these technical skills are being continually worked on, levelling up as you gain further experience and tools to use.
The Conduit to Your Audience
In the previous section, I mentioned the audience. The audience is obviously crucial to both industries; these are your consumers and they must be kept at the forefront of your mind.
After your technical mastery has reached a passable level, then you will have begin to learn the mechanics of whatever medium your art uses to reach your audience. Once you have selected a site to begin sharing your content on, you. you need to know how the site works. Essentially, the site is your storefront, and once you have learnt how to navigate that, then you need to work out how to grow, which means how to reach your target audience..
This is exactly the same for people in the music industry as it is for those in the adult industry. Though the sites may be different (or in some cases, the same!), they all operate the same sort of way. Each has a “creator portal”, “terms of services”and types of content format that can be uploaded.
The People You Need to Know
Once you have got to the stage where you have mastered the platform you are hosting your content on, you will become aware that there is something that is preventing you from making the next leap in your career.
This used to really puzzle me, as I couldn’t see what was required and what I needed to do. This is because this is where you get to the point where you can’t see the machinations of the industry unless you are right inside it. And that takes a special kind of action because you need to find the people in the industry who are important to know. I know that there are people in both industries which you need to connect with to get to that next level.
In the music industry, this includes venue owners, booking agents, sound engineers, industry bodies and other bands within your genre.
The adult industry is exactly the same, but the people you need to connect with are slightly different; site owners, heads of departments, photographers/videographers, industry specifc media and other models within your niche.
Level Up – Develop Status
I just mentioned industry specific media, and both industries have their own types of media that you need to connect into. This is because the next level involves developing status and media is the primary way to develop this and industry respect.
I just mentioned industry specific media, and both industries have their own types of media that you need to connect into. This is because the next level involves developing status and media is the primary way to develop this and industry respect.
This means being seen as an expert in your particular genre and respected as someone with industry experience and credibility. Status comes from being heard, talked about and visible. So interviews, product partnerships, blogs, guest appearances on podcasts are just a handful of the ways this is done, with solid support from social media.
Obviously both of these industries have the same ways of developing status, although the content differs significantly.
Don’t ever discount the advice of business people, just because they work in a different industry to yours. Because, as you can see, we can probably learn so much more from each other .
Rem Sequence is an Australian adult content creator, blogger, and internationally published alt model. She has a background in psychology, philosophy and political science and worked in health and sex education, youth work and trauma counselling for almost two decades. Now, she works full time in the adult industry, as well as indulging her passion for arts, writing and music in numerous side projects.
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