Economics of Tickling Material

[Mike_Edward]

I bet this has already been brought up somewhere on the TMF, but I can't find it.

When I heard that Realtickling was shutting down, I was surprised and disappointed, but did not at all despair. That's because I felt that the free market would simply kick in, and that someone else would begin to produce material at the same rate and of the same quality as Realtickling.

But that hasn't happened. Maybe it's because nobody has stepped in to fill the vacuum just yet, but now I'm thinking there is another reason: could it be that the profit margins of producing tickling material, either DVDs, streaming, online content, VHS, etc., are simply not that high? For most tickling producers, is this a barely profitable labor of love, and is there little economic incentive to produce new material?

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who knows anything about this side of the business, and could offer some insights to myself and others who are interested in the always present but seldom discussed issue of whether it pays to make tickling material.

Mike

 

[U.N.Owen]

I obviously can't answer this from any position of authority, since I have no connection with the video making world. But 1) common sense, and 2) many remarks on the forum by several video producers indicate that...

Yes, profit margins for this material are low. When you think about it, they HAVE to be. A video costs a fair amount of money to make, between hiring models, buying equipment, dubbing copies, and the producer's time. The better the video, the more it will cost. Then think about how many members there are here. There are about 7,500. How many will buy a given video? Not many. Most of the members here have never even posted. How serious do you think they are? There are only about 200 members who post in any serious way. And then, there are doubtless many people in that 200 like myself: I don't buy videos, for a variety of reasons.

So, how many copies of a video will really sell? I'd be very surprized if even a successful vid sells much more than 50 copies. I'd imagine most sell far less than that. (I'm just guessing about numbers, of course.)

In sum, this is a small public, with an even smaller purchasing market. If you sell 30 copies of a video at $40 each, that's $1200 -- not, I'd think, much over the break-even point.

To get into this endeavor, people have to be willing to put a lot of blood, sweat and tears in, and have to know they won't make much on the deal. You sure can't make a living on it. People willing to create a serious video enterprise are going to be few and far between, and for good reason.

 

[TKpervert]

I don't buy tickling videos either, but I do rent them for a day or two if they look decent. There's hundreds of 'adult' video shops in SoCal, and thousands across the country, and the 3 or 4 that I'm familiar with

all stock tickling videos, which is the only reason I visit them. And of course they buy the new stuff when it comes out.
They don't stock all vendors though, usually just CalStar, Closeup, HomeMaid, Galaxy, Harmony, and Bleu.
The producers that we're familiar here (Magic T., et al) are missing a big market by not finding some way to get their product into these shops.

 

[Sadistictickler]

Well, even if the profit margine may be small, the eventual loss of money the producer suffers can't be too large, seeing the huge amount of ticklingvid producers and the vids they produced, because if business was that bad no-one would make more than 1 or 2 vids...

 

[Mike_Edward]

Then think about how many members there are here. There are about 7,500. How many will buy a given video? Not many. Most of the members here have never even posted. How serious do you think they are? There are only about 200 members who post in any serious way. And then, there are doubtless many people in that 200 like myself: I don't buy videos, for a variety of reasons.

I think it might be a mistake to assume that there is a correlation between people who buy tickling material, and how many, if any, posts a person has on the TMF. I've bought a lot of streaming material from Realtickling, and have joined a number of sites (for about a month at a time, I was disappointed). But up until recently, I had hardly any posts.

But the rest of what you say makes sense, I've thought the same thing myself. Has anyone who's actually produced ticking material want to enlighten us?

 

[U.N.Owen]

I think it might be a mistake to assume that there is a correlation between people who buy tickling material, and how many, if any, posts a person has on the TMF.

True. Nonetheless, the basic point holds: it's a small market.

And yes, some comment from actual producers would seem to be the obvious next step for this thread...

 

[Stitch62679]

The profitability of tickling material probably can never come about due to the small volume. I mean, as big as we get as a community, we're still a very small group.
Plus, dont forget the amount of FREE material as opposed to the cost of buying a video. Personally, I've tried to support these producers when I had the money.

 

[TKpervert]

True. Nonetheless, the basic point holds: it's a small market

It's not a small market.
Factor in the thousands of adult video stores across the nation that do (would?) buy tickle videos to rent to the millions of closet tickle freaks that aren't represented here on the TMF.
Economics 101.
The vendors are the losers if they can't see this.

 

[The_Laugher]

Ecconomics Of Tickling Videos

Hi everyone,

As a producer, I wanted to put in my 2 cents worth. Everyone who has responded to this thread have made very valid points. While I can not speak for any other producer then myself, I can say that making the videos is indeed a labor of love and that is the only thing that keeps me doing it. There is not a large profit margin in the business because of the limited market. I do not know of anyone getting rich off the business.

As far a selling to the adult stores, I have done researh on this and most all stores buy from distributers who will not even talk to a producer unless they were a big player like a Cal Star. They also will not talk to producers who do not use nudity which kills any potential sales for me.

I have been doing this since 1998 and I have basically broken even. But I will contine for the time being untill I feel it is not worth it for me to keep making them.

The Laugher
http://www.thelaugher.com

 

[Phineas]

well, I'm not doing a video, just a video GAME, but here's what my experience has been.

Equipment: This wasn't an issue, as I'm using a digital camera I already purchased way back when. Video cameras are actually pretty cheap nowadays, and thinking back I might have gotten one of those, instead. Anyhoo, that's one less cost for me.

Talent: This is the hard one. Models generally demand a lot of money. They can range anywhere from $200-250 to upwards of $500 an hour, and even then a lot of models, even fetish models, won't do tickling. You can tie 'em up, spank 'em, whiz all over 'em, but noooo tickling. So when you find someone willing to do the vid, you basically have to meet whatever price they demand, and God help you if they know you're over a barrel.

Me, I managed to strike a nice balance by asking folks I know, and promising royalties from the game in lieu of a session wage. So far it's worked pretty well, but I'm now officially out of friends and all the pros I've contacted either won't do it, or won't do it free.

I did have a great idea that is probably unique to my situation. My wife and I hop a plane to China every couple of years because we have family there. Everything in China is cheap, and that includes prostitutes. We came up with a plan where we could probably shoot a different girl every night of the week and come home with enough footage for a video at a fraction of the price of one model in the US. I've yet to explore the validity of this.

Anyway, I'm hoping that when I publish my cell games (any day now!) I can skim some of the proceeds off of that to at least get some basic compensation out to the girls posting for TS, but even then, it's money out the window for a product that may or may not even sell well. And "well" for this community is about 200 copies of something. So, there ya go. Do your own math. 🙂

are there ways video producers can manage their business better to cut costs and reduce overhead? probably. I see them, and I'm not even a businessman. On the other hand, it's still an investment with a small, almost miniscule, return.

 

[dtrell]

hey mike....ITS ONLY BEEN TWO WEEKS SINCE THEY SHUT DOWN!....did you think a company was gonna pop up overnight??....give em some time!!...jeez

 

[Mike_Edward]

hey mike....ITS ONLY BEEN TWO WEEKS SINCE THEY SHUT DOWN!....did you think a company was gonna pop up overnight??....give em some time!!...jeez

Actually, Dtrell, to be accurate about the matter, TC announced on February 2 that they were shutting down. So it's almost five weeks, not two.

But let's assume that your comment is still pertinent. Are there any producers out there that are planning to ramp up production? Does anyone know of anybody planning to start a site that will continue TC's tradition of excellence?

But that's not really here nor there. This thread is about whether or not the production of tickling material is profitable. Phineas and Laugher, thank you both very much for shedding some insights on this.

Anyone else? I just think this issue is really interesting.

 

[dtrell]

i was referring to the first paragraph of the start of your post.

 

[Mike_Edward]

And in the following paragraph I made clear that I didn't exclude the possibility that nobody had stepped in yet.