Would You Sell Your Private Sex Tape to a Porn Company??

So like thousands 

(and maybe millions) of couples in the world, you made a sex tape. And now you’re wondering, should I share it? Not with friends or family. But maybe with strangers. Maybe millions of strangers. Just like that proverbial question—if a tree falls in the woods alone, does it make a sound?—if no one sees your sex tape, did it really happen? 

 

There’s another way to describe a sex tape: amateur porn. And people making sex tapes have been selling them as amateur porn—complete with multi-channel distribution—since 1982.

Here’s how it works: First you make a sex tape. If you’re not sure where to begin, here’s our complete guide to Making HER Your Porn Star. 

Then you find somebody to distribute it to the masses. You and your on-screen partner complete the necessary identity-verifying paperwork and consent-verifying video testimonial. Then you submit your tape to any number of companies specializing in curating authentic amateur porn, and maybe they buy it.

I spoke to Farrell Timlake, owner and president of Homegrown Video, the first company to commercially release and distribute homemade amateur porn ever.

Timlake, who decided to sell his own sex tape to the company in the early 90s in exchange for enough money to go on the road with the Grateful Dead, bought the company in 1993—with money he borrowed from his mom.

I asked Timlake the most obvious question: Who sells their sex tapes, rights and all, to Homegrown?

“There’re the young 20-something college students looking for a few extra bucks,” says Timlake. “And then there’s the majority, which I think the company was founded on—the sexually active 30-to-50-something crowd that’s kinda done everything else and is looking for a new thrill.”

To some extent, sure, they’re looking for money. Kim Kardashian’s sex tape reportedly made her in the ballpark of $65 million. But Kim Kardashian is the exception. As Timlake explains, in today’s buyers’ market, with so much porn content available on the Internet (much of it for free), prices have dipped.