Hi everyone
This is a question mainly aimed at producers but may also be answered my anyone else here with regards to the download habits

Just wondering if anyone in particular producers have noticed a big drop off in the amount of downloads recently following a lot of the current situations that is happening in the world

Have you spoke to a couple of reduces it seems to be a running trend at the moment and was wondering if it's UK based or further afield

With regards to customers have you changed your buying habits if so what has changed is it the content of the scene in particular or just the fact that you may not be able to afford to download as many scenes as you want state

As a result I'm seriously considering whether there's much point in producing much more material especially as the current situation with energy prices among other things is only going to get worse for some time to come before any positive starts to Shine through

For me Chantelle it is the simple fact I cannot afford to buy lots of downloads so pick & choose 'must have ones'.
Its nothing against any producers but under current climate you just have to prioritise your budget.

Widgy x

For me, it was because I was out of work for 2 months, and the cost of gas rising up to $5 per gallon, but now I have a new job, and gas gone down under $4 per gallon, so I'll probably purchase some scenes next week.

Interest rates gone up, cost of food gone up, housing costs rising, fuel high, and winter prep is more expensive this year. All of those things have regretfully contributed to me scaling back on discretionary purchases. Sometimes it sucks being an adult.

How I wish I lived in the US right now
Fuel in the UK is just under £2 for a litre and most of it is tax with our own government completely ripping us off
Now with the energy crisis as well we could be looking at paying up to £7000 a year For a own energy just to heat and light our houses
Government are doing absolutely nothing about it I've been helping those that are already getting too much help in the first place but for the hard work in individuals that are paying the taxes rather than abusing it they are getting no help whatsoever
Maybe it's time to up sticks and leave this country once and for all as we had planned in the past the only thing is I can't take my favourite clay pits with me

Less that $4 a gallon? Here in the UK we're paying the equivalent of $7.60 a gallon and the price is continually fluctuating. As wamchantelle has mentioned, we are getting absolutely ripped off and with energy prices set to almost triple in the next 6 months it is absolutely disgusting a d a lot of people are now choosing between heating or eating. We have more.foodbanks than ever before, people are getting 2 or 3 jobs just to be able to afford to live. Me and the Mrs are lucky as we both earn, I earn a fairly good wage but we are still struggling. If we were on minimum wage we would be in real trouble.

So bearing all that in mind, everything other than bills now seems to be a luxury so people are tightening their belts.

I'd found my sales have slowed but this was expected as August is often a tough month I've found and July was exceptionally good

I say this, it looks like August will be my 5th best month overall, and is only a handful of sales off being 3rd or 4th. This said, of course, I was 1 clip per week until the end of last Dec and been 2 per week since.

My sales in the UK have completely tailed off. But are holding steady or growing elsewhere, not everywhere in the same boat as the UK

Another thing is most the sites I'm on pay in dollars and the pound is weak at the minute which means it's more-for-money with sales, but, of course, makes it more expensive for UK buyers to buy scenes.

Undoubtedly it's making a difference and the pessimistic projections in the news will affect people's attitudes further. The dramatic fuel price rises have been going on for several years now but they seem particularly extreme in the UK. I've had to put up prices in my non-WAM business to compensate.

I've suspected that the sales declines noticed by individual producers are more to do with the ever growing amount of content available combined with buyers becoming ever more particular about what they like. The producers with a lot of skin in the game are producing at a fantastically frequent rate to stay dominant - a rate requiring either a massive outlay or a resident model.

My own catalogue is a fraction of its former size since deleting all my amateur relationship content so it makes very little money now anyway and I've not produced anything at all for over a year.

By personal preference my individual scenes are quite intense, lavish and expensive which precludes shooting multiple scenes to save on costs.

The immediate returns, however, have diminished to a point where I've lost interest in making even occasional scenes with professional models. Only a couple of years ago the first week's sales would guarantee covering all costs and make a small surplus followed by a steady royalty income over time. My last two scenes turned over about half their outlay during the first two weeks and only the combined sales following another year have caught up.

For me it's simply financial reasons, I think twice before any purchases.
I've had Mostwam and Customwam subscriptions for many, many years, but with the current concerns, and prices going up, they have had to be cancelled.
The sad part it, produces, content makers etc I'm sure they are all facing rising costs, so in turn they have to put thier prices up, its a vicious circle we are in.
However, if something really ticks the box, then I'll buy it, regardless of price, it has to exactly what I'm looking for.

For me, it's not so much money, but that I got picky.

I have a huge collection already. Pretty much everything I've bought over the last 20+ years, I still have. There are favourites in there from over 10 or 15 years ago that no-one has matched since and they'll still get viewed. So that's what I ask myself if I'm thinking of buying something: am I going to watch this once, stick it on back-up, and go back to watching the older favourites? If the answer is "yeah, probably" then I hang fire until I see something I absolutely have to have. But, it's harder to find those things, particularly as there is so much material nowadays, old and new, to sift through.

All that said, August can be a poor month for sales generally, no matter what industry. Schools are out. People are away on holiday. I see it drop in my line of work too.

Not sure the cost-of-living-crisis will affect things, not just yet anyway. I know people who work multiple jobs and 7 days a week, complain about how hard things are and there is no food in the cupboard, but they won't give up their sky, netflix, prime or Disney+ TV, or fags, or coffee. I think a huge number of people are good at justifying themselves treats. Tell themselves it doesn't count because it's only £10 or £20. As long as people keep treating themselves, they'll keep buying things they don't really need, like WAM material.

An interesting post!
I've bought some downloads, maybe 6-12 a year for several years.
May I suggest what I think may be happening?
There are just loads more producers.
You see new members join, quite rightly, and within a short time, they have a store.
Nothing wrong with that.
But the cake is getting sliced thinner and thinner.
Just a thought.
Peter

As both a producer and consumer of WAM media I've effectively got two separate answers to this:

First, as a comsumer: I've currently got $122 of scenes in my basket, including loads from MostWam, four from Messy Married Couple, and one each from The Rev and Jeremy Custard. What normally happens is I slowly build stuff up in the basket till it's about $100 worth and buy in a big batch. I actually got to $100 back in April but because of various outlays and financial issues, have been holding off actually completing the purchase, though I probably do need to do so soon. But yeah, the apocalyptic warnings about paying £500+ a month for gas and electricity aren't encouraging spending. Also currently got unexpected buisiness expenses, the timing belt on the van failed a couple of weeks back, meaning a new (used) engine needed, which is going to come to close to 2 grand all-in, but still cheaper than buying a temporary van till I can get a new one ordered, esp as Ford are currently quoting nine months from order to delivery for factory builds.

Second, as a producer: We had a really strong spring, all the way back to January, when you expect things to be poor because everyone's dealing with the post-Christmas financial hangover. We had months of solid sales and some record-breaking (for us) weeks. Sales definitely dipped through the summer, and in July we'd a couple of quite low weeks though still selling content. I've learned not to panic when sales dip or we go five days with no sales, it doesn't mean no-one is ever going to buy again, it just means that the cycles of people's spend / don't spend feelings have aligned on a down-dip, same as when we get an exceptional week it's just that the spend cycles have aligned on an upspike. And indeed, since July things have picked back up to decent figures.

I think some of the summerr dip, which does happen every year, is just that when the weather is good people are out enjoying the sunshine and warm evenings with friends, instead of being at home, and watching fetish erotica is generally not something you do in public. Ironically of course high summer with the sun blazing down is when our model fee payouts are highest as we're working flat out shooting mud scenes - between what we shot last year and this year, during the heatwaves, we've now got more than three years worth of mud scenes stockpiled for future release, and I'm now arranging to shoot some more wetlook scenes to bring that stockpile up to match, though that's easier as we can shoot five wetlook scenes a day, wheras three is usually the max the girls can handle for mud.

In general, to an extent WAM scenes are a bit like chocolate - an affordable luxury people can still buy even when they've cut back on £££ family trips to the cinema or buying a new car. During a recession, on the stock markets, chocolatiers are good shares to hold, as those companies do well wheras big-ticket retailers tend to struggle.

As to the UK cost of living crisis, part of the problem at the moment is that having announced his resignation, Boris Johnson and his government can't take large decisions as by tradition, an outgoing administration shouldn't attempt to tie the hands of an incoming one. And while they're only concerned about getting votes from Tory party members, we aren't going to hear about any practical plans they might have in case they spook the party members. Personally, I think if domestic energy bills are allowed to rise to the projected £500+ that's being talked about, there will be civil unrest - riots at the least, and an actual full on "overthrow the state" revolution wouldn't be entirely beyond the realm of possible outcomes. Which means that whoever does get appointed Prime Minister on September 5th will shake the magic money tree and come up with some kind of kludge, almost certainly involving the state subsidising energy for the time being, and then clawing the money back via some kind of extra levy on bills over the next 20 years.

Thanks for all your comments and points you have made
Don't get me wrong I'm not shouting poor little me I'm not getting downloads as I am but I have noticed a significant drop and it seems to tie up with all the financial problems that are going on in the world at the moment
As a producer I suppose I'm lucky as the model I use it's free but there are still the cost of the outfits the fuel getting from these places and obviously the time it takes from my partner to edit everything up which he is doing alongside running his own business which luckily for him in this current situation is on the app due to the service he provides
I have generally stayed away from food shoots for sometime now partly due to the cost involved with even the basic items in some circumstances doubling in price but also from a moral point of view has just lately I kind of seen so I have a guilty conscience about the fact I'm pouring over my head what some people can't even afford to buy in particular those going to food banks or even having to resort to steal from the local shops as witness recently by myself just to feed themselves
I think the situation personally in the UK is going to get a hell of a lot worse before it even starts to show any signs of getting better and in my opinion whoever replaces Boris it's probably still from the same block and will do very little to improve the situation for those who really need it and also for those there are holding down jobs not on the benefits system but may still struggle but are entitled to nothing because apparently they earn too much despite the fact they probably don't
Once again thank you for all your comments I will continue reading and commenting on them as I believe this is a subject that many people can relate to and I don't just mean producers because of losing sales but How people are generally feeling at the moment with the whole situation with energy prices fuel costs and basic food prices going through the roof

No doubt about it, the UK is a dump at the moment. And while I know people don't want to read political rants on here, it would be disingenuous not to say the government is a massive problem.

I think for me the challenge is not in selling it; or at least that doesn't seem to be the case

but both the cost and justification of cost in making it

Be it "can I spend this money on shoots which may make money back over time, or should I be prioritising other spends"

or that, stuff like train fares is creeping up as more people ditch cars
hotels and venues are putting up their rates

other people are having their own expenses go up

so I've kinda been trying to stock pile content so I'm not making when some overheads are at their highest

I'm here for a very niche part of the fetish so usually unless I see that activity being performed in the video, I may pass on it. However, if I DO see that activity being performed in the video, I'll practically trip over myself to get my credit card out, regardless of the producer.

Mainly, because good "production" mud locations aren't secluded enough for nudity from the start. While actual mud fetishists will be happy to trek a couple of miles to a totally secluded spot and wash off afterwards in a freezing cold stream, not many models will be willing to do so. Plus, most producers will shoot their own preference, so if someone isn't into nudity, they're unlikely to go out of their way to shoot it.

Though hasnt Jayce done nude mud scenes a few times, and MudMadPhil?

Having said all that, if a fully clothed producer happens to meet a model who really wants to shoot full nude...

I haven't been a producer for many, many years, and even when I was one, I was too small-time, so I'll stick to the consumer part.

For me personally it's a combination of things. The first is that, sad as I am to admit it, WAM is becoming sort of...well, old hat to me. I started realizing I was into this fetish very early on, very much pre-adult years, though I was too inexperienced to even really know what a fetish was. That was over twenty-five years ago, and at the time, the sight of a single pie in the face could get my heart racing, and when I first saw the Great Race and the Stripes mudwrestling scene, those were gold. But twenty-five years is a lot of time to purchase, view, and re-view WAM scenes, and I've built up quite a catalog. The scenes most producers are putting out these days are pretty much re-hashes of things that have been done many, many times before. Occasionally a scene here or there will pique my interest because it's got something unique about it, but it's a rare thing for me these days. 95% of the material I've seen on the UMD over the past five years just hasn't done much for me.

The second is my changing tastes. To echo what a few others have said, I've gotten pickier over the years. I also had the good fortune of meeting a woman semi-local to me about a decade ago who makes fetish customs as a sideline partly to explore her own kinks and also because for her it's fun. She enjoys WAM because she finds it a little bit of a turn-on, but mainly because it's a great way to blow off steam after a week of regular 9-5 work. "Man, I love being a trainer but at the end of the week I need some way to unwind. You want to pay me $250 for a thirty minute video of me rolling around in an inflatable pool of shaving cream wearing wrestling gear? Hell yes!" I'm not sure how much a custom like that from a long-established producer on here would cost, but I suspect it would be a lot more than $250.

Third and last is my interest in other fetishes. Over the last ten years I've really been able to explore other areas of sexual interest and yes, some of them heavily incorporate WAM, but some don't. I've realized over the last five years (and my video purchase history over that time period seem to bear this out), I've been buying a lot of videos that have to do with these other fetishes, and I'm spending fewer and fewer $$ per year on WAM.

One of the points others in this thread and the OP mentioned are definitely partly to blame as well. During and after every epidemic and pandemic in recent history there's been a general downturn in the economy followed by what we would refer to as recessions today, and also the same sort of excellent "many workers can pick and choose their jobs right now, employers are begging for labor" movement we've been seeing in America recently. Ignore the idiots who keep parroting the "nobody wants to work anymore" lines on the news. COVID and its aftermath mostly showed people in the US that they didn't have to stand working for slave wages any longer just to be able to afford food and shelter. However, the modern supply chain disruptions are something that hasn't been experienced on such a wide scale before; in 1918 we weren't shipping hundreds of millions of tons of cargo across the oceans. It's going to be interesting to see how that all shakes out. But until things stabilize, as Chantelle said, I suspect sales are going to be down across the board.

Brooke and I have a surprise for you coming up soon then
Keep watching for one of our updates soon

This is an interesting topic and it's been good to read everyones views.

As a customer I think the increased number of content / producers has as much to do with this as the reduction in disposable income many are facing. If you think about British TV in the 80s around 25m watched the top ranked show on Christmas Day, but now that figure is 7m. If you focus on Eastenders they have seen a 60 - 70% reduction in viewing figures. Yet there are not less people watching TV, it's just that more channels (and the fact people watch "on demand") have spread viewers across platforms.

Through customs that I have commissioned and scenes that I have bought I have a got catalogue of "classic" scenes that I will go back to and custom scenes which satisfy my wish for model / mess / dialogue. As such I am probably guilty of being slightly more picky in terms of what I buy. When I started out buying Splosh magazine it was a joy to see two attractive girls get messy but now I'm looking for my favourite models in my favourite substances in my favourite outfits.

There are still things that catch my eye, and I do buy them. It's been good to see new models like Lottie LaLay, Erin Moore and Brooke Maddison (to name but three) come along over the past year and that helps to keep things fresh. I shot a custom with Erin and it was amazing. I hope that sales do pick up after the Summer lull as it's a shame when producers like Trouso describe that it's not worth their while in terms of sales to produce new scenes.

This has been an interesting read. We have a perfect storm of a pandemic, plus a war in an agriculturally vital area, plus rampant plutocracy, plus the climate crisis starting to bite.

Another thing to throw in is that presumably the rise in food prices and supply chain causing shortages has made the cost of some WAM rise quite considerably - a decent scene or even a self-WAM session requires quite a large amount of 'stuff' and it can't easily be reused.

Also, I'd like to point out that the cost of public EV charging has risen at least as dramatically as that of fossil fuels- I'm seeing some rapid chargers now asking over 60p a kWh, which works out at something equivalent to paying £1.40 a litre unless you can eke over 4 mi/kWh out of the car. This does include VAT of course, but given that the charge companies seem very keen to ephasise that all those electrons are coming from renewables and there is no need to pay for a tanker, a driver and a forecourt it does seem like price gouging.

I think I actually touched on part of the fact of the rising food prices as well as the fact the pouring buckets of beans over myself does seem a bit weird when some people should be struggling to afford to buy a can hence why lately I've been sticking mainly to Claypits

to put another spin on things - while a lot can be concerning - we've all been here before
and from a producer/performer perspective we can plan for it

so of course - buyers tightening their belts has potential to decrease sales.
However not every country is going through the same squeezes and some will emerge quicker

the appetite for material still remains and in previous downturns people are more likely to cut spending in other places.

as has been mentioned above from some buyers - some have decreased their purchases anyway and not really linked to the downturn - just the general feelings of having 'seen it all' to one degree or another. Some people like some sites/sellers because they know what they get, others eventually find this repetitive.
Like going to see a really funny comedian but the punchline to every joke is "and then she got gunged"
And some sites move in different ways here. Some go through constant evolutions to stay fresh, bring in new ladies all the time, so on - and others - just do the same thing anyway, but while they will lose people - the hope of bringing in new fans.

That is just natural progression, rather than downturn linked.

But in down turns, I know a lot of real time stuff can struggle and there also be a lot of timewasters - but - camming and clips is a global market
But another recognised issue is that in any form of downturn there's an increase of people who turn to some form of sex work : from a sploshing perspective I don't think this is a massive threat since it's expensive content to make anyway - but while a lot of people get worried about new ladies especially those who have like - I dunno - $3 OnlyFans - a lot really don't last long when they see the money isn't really there (that like, it's actually work to do) and fans still prefer to go for those they know and trust - that even paying $3 is a lot if the person is going to get fed up after a fortnight.

One big challenge as mentioned is the rising cost of shoots.
That travel costs are hire cos of fuel which can make some shoots not so worth while for performers and/or more expensive for producers depending on who is paying travel
if it's an owned studio any offset savings on hire is lost in increased energy prices to heat and light the place
and then of course rising food costs having a big impact on splosh
I know this also reraises the ethical question of "should we be doing this with food when so many people are going hungry" and controversially I'll add that there is always so many people going hungry - it's how capitalism works
But, certainly, I get it when more and more people are being dragged into poverty

Whilst everything is subject to change - I'm trying to get a few shoots done before the price rises kick in and also looking at ways at cutting costs rather than corners. Which, well, is mostly going to be done via more collaboration and crossover.

Although I sometimes see a video that I'd like to have, I balance that desire against the pile of videos I already have downloaded (fear not, I don't share - producers need to make a profit to keep producing). So unless the video is extra-special, I more often than not these days take a pass. I might come back after awhile and decide I need a treat, so I'll pick up a video that was produced months and even years ago.

And for the record, unleaded gas is currently running $3.25/gallon here in Houston. Toss in supermarket discounts (use the supermarket's card, get cents off each gallon) and it's possible to drop to $3.05/gallon.

Just for the record, the price of fuel has dropped here in the UK, too. Today I filled up at the equivalent of just $7.52 a gallon. Bargain...

Hope you (eyemblacksheep) don't mind me zeroing in on one aspect, overall I agree with pretty much all you said.


I think this is something that people naturally, but incorrectly, worry about too much. While yes, if everyone was starving, and/or there were mass shortages and people going hungry due to empty shelves in the shops, then wasting dozens of tins of beans to pour over someone would be extreme decadance - it would also be horrendously expensive, because in that situation the cans would probably be worth a fiver each just to sell on, and so any business-minded producer would sell their stockpike (or, if more ethically minded, donate it to charity) rather than use as originally planned.

But that's not (yet) the position we are in, the shops are full and while prices have risen they haven't yet reached starvation level. Plus, given the shops, manufacturers, and farmers, are all in business to make money, then it could be argued that as long as there isn't an actual shortage, buying extra product for splosh use is actually helping by increasing volume and so making the product more profitable to stock, which means the shops can cut prices and still make the same margin, which helps everyone. Splosh producers buying extra custard aren't going to cause anyone in the UK to have to do without.

BUT - zoom out to a global scale, add the effects of climate change - the reason there's no shortages in rich countries is we can afford to buy the raw materials and base food products we need, even if the price doubles. Meanwhile people in poorer countries starve because the food produced locally is being shipped out to wealthier countries. But as you say, that's actually how it has always been, and the current cost spike in the West, largely caused by Putin's invasion of Ukraine, is temporary, at least for now - climate change will probably make it permanent eventually but not for a decade or two.

And mention of Ukraine gives another example, there are Ukranian wetlook producers doing quite a lot of shoots where the models cut each others clothes off during the scenes, destroying them. Models in the same Ukraine that was (rather unnecessarily) being sent tonnes of donated clothing as aid not long ago. Someone queried this in one of the forums a while back and the producer's answer was that the models, living in some cases in the actual war zone, wanted to do cutting scenes as they got paid more for them. When you're living with the threat that your life may be ended at any moment by one of Putin's rockets, it's more than understandable you want to make as much as possible to enjoy life while it remains.

Wandering a bit off topic, the rather unnecessary aid - Ukraine and surrounding countries have plentiful and well-stocked shops, the best way to help refugees in an area like that is to send money, not "stuff" - was an example of what is a major problem for aid agencies. Whenever something "bad" happens people want to help, but "donating" truckloads of stuff doesn't usually help at all and often makes things worse by diverting people from actively helping the survivors to instead warehousing and trying to figure out what to do with avalnches of random things. In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting, the town of 27,000 people was sent 65,000 teddy bears, more than 1000 of them life-size.

But back to sploshing and food - of course no amount of logical reasoned argument will help if an angry mob of hungry people turns up convinced you're wasting food they could be eating. So a degree of circumspection is definitely needed.


Likewise. After a spectacular summer of mud and final weekend of wetlook, we've largely shut production down for the next few months, partly while waiting to see what the new PM is actually going to do about the energy price crisis, which hopefully we'll find out next week, and partly because we did rather over-spend in the first half of the year. But, we have years of scenes in stock, so releases will just keep steadiy rolling.

I think in my slight comment - I think it's fair for people to be concerned about food (or clothing, or other) wastage but it's no better/worse than any other time really

although there was someone I had to stop engaging with as - ugh - she was on about the wastage from splosh and I suggested there were alternatives, such as natrasol, which didn't involve food wastage - but she had an argument for every point so I couldn't be arsed.

But, yep
My next shoot is at someone's home and I got good deals on travel so the shoot is going to cost very little - and as we time and a scene plan the cost-per-clip is pretty low

After that I'm off to a gig in September so up to my usual trick of booking something while down and while I did make a minor screw up - have something booked in though it's a three way split and we have opened to 'film subs'
The problem of course with a 3 way split is the chaos in releasing and competing with self

Speaking of chaotic, the other thing quite fashionable at the minute is "creators days" which usually involves multiple people splitting all the costs and getting as much content as they can in the time making use of the facilities/etc
Though some of these do seem to have the chaos of unnecessarily throwing bodies into scenes and then of course however-many-way-splits
I say, chaotic - I am considering hosting my own later in the year. Buuut... the venue has 4 film zones in 2 distinct areas so it would be possible for 2 sets of filming to occur concurrently.

The problem with fuel prices are when they have these peaks where it goes up so high then comes down again but it never drops as low as it was previously put they get you all with their mind games thinking fuel is going back down in price by knocking off a few pence here or there
Won't be long before £2 a litre will be considered cheap When they spike it up to £2.50 a litre then drop it down a little bit and have us all running round thinking fuel is going down in price when clearly most of its tax and the government controlling the prices

If sales are in a bit of a lull, model availability could be another cause. When I speak to people, they say they don't want to see the same models all the time.I can think of four or five models who've starred for multiple producers this year. For example, there have been two producers releasing Ivy Rain stuff, today alone, even filmed in the same tank, although I'd guess one of the releases might have been filmed in 2019, so perhaps more release schedule coordination between producers could help here?

Other complaints I hear are the use of models who've been around for several years (again, this is largely an availability issue, so no one's fault) and repetitive themes such as a chance remark leading to one model trashing another model's clothes and handbag, and stripping her as "revenge".