Porn salary

There's a well-worn porn cliche about the college student-turned-actress who decided to have sex in front of a camera in order to pay off her student loans. Like many cliches, it's rarely true — but it's worth wondering: How big are paychecks in the porn business, anyway? Money is a topic that's shrouded in mystery in the adult entertainment world. While it's widely presumed to be a multibillion dollar industry, there's no real firm accounting to back that up.

When it comes to the average actor's salary, though, the figure is harder to pin down. On one hand, the explosion of free porn sites has squeezed profits; on the other, social media has allowed performers to build a following , produce content and go out on their own. To understand how much porn stars are really making, I got in touch with four Italian adult actors who've had very different careers — some have worked in the US, others in Europe, while one has been working since the s, which was supposedly the golden age of porn. VICE: Do you think people have the wrong idea about how much porn stars really make? Valentina Nappi: Think about it: how many people pay to watch porn online?

While consumers of porn enjoy watching it, they rarely consider the actresses and actors at the heart of the films. But why do people become porn performers? How much do they get paid and does this depend on what they do?

Fame in the adult entertainment industry is a fickle thing. Many performers leave the industry before anyone knows their name. Some experience a meteoric rise, only to fall in the course of a few months. Others prove eternal. Those two components can make a tremendous difference when it comes to what performers earn.