OnlyFans debt relief

This week, Harry Potter actor Jessie Cave (no relation) announced she was starting an OnlyFans account offering “the best quality hair sounds”. 

More interesting (just) than this snippet of news is the reason why - debt relief and financial security. 

Cave is far from the first celebrity to turn to the often-explict platform to help pay their bills (although her business plan of hair content being “a fetish, I think. I hope” is perhaps the weakest).

Sopranos actor Drea de Matteo prevented her home from going into foreclosure through revenue generated through the platform. 

But it’s singer Lily Allen’s response to being called out for sharing feet pics that point to the real issue here, with the hitmaker saying “imagine…having nearly 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify but earning more money from having 1,000 people subscribe to pictures of your feet.”

In the age of fractured channels, decentralised content, and the end of the mainstream, feet-by-subscription now seemingly outcompetes the long tail royalties of bangers like ‘Smile’.

Allen’s quandary is the subject of Mood Music, a new book by music journalist Liz Pelly (which, ironically, you can listen to on Spotify from today).

Then again (and calling back to the previously discussed importance of historical context), this isn’t new. 

Musicians have spent time as nurses during the pandemic (Georgia Maq of Camp Cove), tattoo parlour artists and high-end food marketers (various members of Los Campesinos!), and much more. It was common for sports stars of yesteryear to have entirely separate careers they’d return to every off-season.

It doesn’t mean there aren’t ongoing structural challenges in building a career in the arts. But the move to OnlyFans may just be the 2020s reflection of a longstanding trend.