Monday, June 21, 2010

Internet Adult Film Database: A fine example of niche expertise online

The beauty of the Internet is that people with specialized knowledge can readily share their expertise with anyone.
A good example is the Internet Adult Film Database. It is to pornography what the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is to mainstream movies. The porn industry is a multibillion-dollar enterprise, so regardless of your personal feelings about it, it should not be ignored. (Warning: IAFD is not suitable for work. Contains adult images.)
The IAFD lists 104,302 titles and 99,391 performers and directors.
The IAFD has an all-volunteer staff of 12 editors who do research and data entry, says the site’s webmaster Jeff Vanzetti. The website is the premier resource for information about the U.S. porn industry, although it has been adding more European titles to the database.
The IAFD was created by Peter van Aarle, who died in September 2005 at the age of 42 from a heart attack, according to Wikipedia. Vanzetti and others continue his legacy.
In an e-mail interview, Vanzetti told me his favorite part of working on the IAFD is knowing that he’s “giving something back” to the community. “I think that’s what drives most of the editors; knowing we’re part of something larger than ourselves and we’re helping the fan and the consumer make informed choices,” he said.
The IAFD includes both gay and straight porn movies. The database has significantly more porn actors than actresses recorded. It notes 58,004 actors and 35,958 actresses. That’s a lot of people having sex on camera.
The database also lists 5,429 directors. Of those directors, just over 2,300 (42%) were performers themselves, Vanzetti said.
As with any extensive database, a lot of interesting information can be mined from it. Vanzetti was kind enough to run the numbers for me for some fascinating statistics on the porn industry.

Q: How many active performers are there in the porn movie business today?

Assuming an active performer has had a movie released in 2009 or 2010, the Internet Adult Film Database lists 6,295 male performers and 3,642 female performers. There also are 682 active porn directors.

Q: What’s the average career length for people in the porn movie industry?
Two years for performers and three years for directors.
The typical female performer makes 10 adult movies. The average for male performers is six movies. Directors average 13 movies.

Q: What’s the average age for actresses and actors doing porn?

The IAFD’s birthday data are incomplete, but what there are shows that, on average, female performers start at age 23, males at 26 and directors at 32.
Female performers tend to quit porn acting by 27, males by 32 and directors by 37.

Interesting stuff.
Thanks again to Jeff Vanzetti for helping out with this article. He also assisted my posts on porn parodies based on real-life events or public figures and the cleverest titles for porn parodies of Hollywood movies and TV shows.

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