Earjob: An adult audio content platform

A team assignment for #StartupLab, a module of #ADandPRlab

Estimates vary on the annual revenue of the porn industry in the US alone, ranging from 5 billion to 15 billion dolars. By comparison, Netflix’s revenue in 2018 was 11 billion and the NBA a “mere” 7,4 (source). Let that sink in for a second.

Meanwhile, the adult content industry has been going for a while now through a tremendous transition — stemming from an outright crisis. One would think it’s because of all that free content available at your fingertips (sorry, we can’t help it with the puns, so bear with us). But sales are going fine, thank you very much, content platforms like Pornhub would assure you.

Rather, the crisis is stemming from a flurry of reveals about the exploitation or outright abuse of porn actors by production companies. A landmark case, revolving around a lawsuit against website Girlsdoporn, is a prime example. More recently, iconic ex-actress and feminist activist Mia Khalifa, was very outspoken about the stigma that follows performers.

Meanwhile, here at #Fellowsheep, we like to make startups out of our passion and at the same time, try to be ahead of the curve in industries before they take a sharp turn.

We thought to ourselves: How can you empower performers? How can you keep their lives private? How can you make adult content more responsibly, while raising the bar in quality and personalization? The answer was right in front of our eyes, or rather, was ringing already in our ears.

Enter #Earjob (there, I did it again). We envisioned a strictly audio only platform and mobile app with a tiered model, where content consumers could find exactly what they needed, and become content creators with a few clips, instantly accessing the beauty of monetization without a) production companies and b) have to ever show their face.

Traction

Of course we loved the idea, it was ours to begin with anyway, but even in the context of a university assignment, that wasn’t enough. We distributed a short questionnaire for a sample of 14 people (7 CIS male, 7 CIS female), and this is what we found:

The sample is admittedly small, but it gave us reasonable confidence to move ahead.

Who else is there?

We browsed and browsed through endless porn resources (..and again) only to realise that in terms of purely audio content, not much is there as far as a dedicated platform is concerned — the few samples we found were cheesy and nothing like what we envisioned to do. Moreover, user monetization was just not there, with the most content generated and distributed for free via Reddit.

Our vision can be heard

Earjob, our aspiring startup, would be based primarily on an iOS/Android app. The mandate for the designers is a sleek, clutter AND guilt-free design, discreet enough for a person to be able to fire it up while commuting. The categories will be inclusive and diverse, welcoming all genders and sexual orientations. Equally importantly, every member, even those who have access only to the free content (which would be around 90% of the total), are welcome to become creators themselves and instantly gaining from the content they put on the platform.

Pleasing your auditory cavity is our goal…
The content itself would not only revolve around intercourse or solo-play clips, but also include sensual guided meditation and erotic hypnosis — two heavily trending aspects of adult content. Moreover, we will put conscious effort into commissioning instructional and educational podcasts that revolve around sexual relationships, techniques and topics of sexuality and gender identity.

Apart from a tiered model that unlocks, via subscription, the premium content, there would also be two paid services:
a) Live sex audio shows — pretty self-explanatory
b) Built-to-order clips: the user would choose the performer, would pick through a variety of options according to his preferences, and the performer would even use her/his name, addressing her/him one-to-one in the final product.

…but so is protecting the privacy of all creators

True to our mission of empowering performers, amateurs or professionals, to create and monetize their own content, we first and foremost want to make them feel safe they can act out the kinkiest stuff, without ever wondering about being found out, and stigmatized.
For this, we will be partnering up, through a revenue-sharing agreement to keep our initial costs low, with a machine learning specialist company to develop an aglorithm that progressively scrambles sound. This will achieve a two-fold goal:
a) Content consumers will have an extra knob (can’t help it…) available to them on the playback menu, that will make the clip sound range from feeling like you’re right there with the performe, all the way to hearing to your neighbors bang from across the street. We feel that the users will find this little voyerism tool quite fun
b) More importantly, every content creator will be able to set the minimum level of scrambling in his/her clips, so that they feel comfortable they won’t be recognised if they so wish.

Business model

Running the numbers and drafting our business canvas, we arrived at the following projection for revenue:

We are confident the personalized services will take off and will be a hit with our users, and that our very responsible, fun, playful and cute approach and design will attract suffiecient advertising. We also believe content creators will flock to the platform, allowing us to profit from royalties.

Regarding costs, we plan to be extremely frugal and will actively pursue profit-sharing schemes with all the technology providers we need, allocating a good sum in attracting initial talent to the platform through straight commissions.

Fun, easy, shareable and unapologetic

Due to our nothing-to-hide, fresh, not-quite-hipster-but-almost mentality, we will be very active on social media, not only to share content and attract users but to create an complete identity that leaves its own mark and has its own opinion. And hey, we’ll also be on Tinder!

Final words? How about final sounds?

But we’re not quite finished yet (this was the last pun, I promise). We created some cheeky “samples”, strictly for our prototyping needs, and we’re happy to share. Just hop on over here and check them out :)

Roll credits please

A project for #ADandPRlab #Startuplab

We were tutored and inspired by Assistant Professor Betty Tsakarestou

We’re (in no particular order):

Ilias Alexandris // Nikos Papasyriopoulos // Loukia Tsiota // Dimitris Boutsikos // Nick Noulas // Panagiotis Yiagkou // Dimitris Bounias

We are #Fellowsheep