LAS VEGAS — It’s Wednesday evening, and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is in a perpetual haze of cigarette smoke and loud rock music. Heavily made-up women in short, tight dresses and sky-high heels and men who’ve arrived from all parts of the world to ogle them are beginning to outnumber the casino denizens at their blackjack tables and slot machines.
Sure, it’s Las Vegas, but this also the Adult Entertainment Expo, the largest event of its kind, a convention-slash-trade show-slash-bacchanal for the porn industry. The four-day expo, with over 200 exhibitors, 500 porn stars, and 30,000 members of the “industry” features seminars on subjects like how to get around Google censorship, how the “50 Shades of Grey” phenomenon has positively impacted the industry, alongside an opportunity for fans (mostly men) to meet their favorite porn stars. The AVN Awards, the adult industry’s version of the Oscars, takes place in a few days, on Saturday 24th.
Overseeing it all is Theo Sapoutzis CEO of Adult Video News Media Network, the Billboard or Variety if you will, of the adult entertainment industry. Of all the content industries upended by digital distribution the porn industry was hardest hit, but one could argue the total apocalypse happened quicker, forcing the survivors to adapt. Production has slowed, but the porn industry has already been living in PornHub‘s world of free, ubiquitous porn online for years. What’s emerged is a polyglot economy of micro-businesses targeting every conceivable niche.
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