Partnered Briefly with Audiotape Erotica Sellers in the 1980s
The year was 1986, and Gent magazine had just published its second issue. Its first issue had done well enough that the company decided to run a limited trial subscription offer, hoping to entice new readers. It worked – thousands of people signed up for their free copy. One idea they came up with during this time was to include ads for audio cassettes featuring women reading erotic stories. These never took off, but reflect the era's multimedia curiosity. Today, those tapes are nearly impossible to find.
The experiment began innocently enough. In early 1986, the company's founder and CEO, John Gentleman, had an idea. He wanted to add some variety to the magazine's advertising revenue stream by trying something new: offering subscribers access to audiotaped erotica from his wife, Gwen Gentleman. The plan was simple: he would record her reading seductive tales and then sell them as a bonus to new subscribers. The recordings would be sent out along with the initial copy of the magazine, giving subscribers a taste of what they could expect in future issues.
Gentleman recruited several other women to join him in this venture. Each one read a different story, ranging from classic fairy tales like "Little Red Riding Hood" to more modern stories about lesbian relationships. All were recorded using high-quality equipment so that listeners could hear every breath and moan. Unfortunately, most people weren't interested in paying $15 per month (the equivalent of over $30 today) for what they considered niche content. After only six months of selling, Gent decided to cancel the program altogether.
In hindsight, it may have been too soon – or perhaps not soon enough. The '80s were known for their experimental spirit; people were exploring new technologies and ways to consume media. They bought VCRs en masse and began renting videos at video stores. The world wide web didn't exist yet, but there was already talk of how it would revolutionize communication and commerce. It's possible that if Gent had waited just a few years longer, audio cassettes featuring erotic fantasies might have caught on.
Today, those tapes are hard to find. While some companies still produce erotica on audiocassette format, they mostly do so for specialty markets like fetishists or kink enthusiasts. The average person is unlikely to stumble across one while browsing through used bookstores or record shops. Even if they did, they probably wouldn't know where to begin listening – after all, who can remember how to operate an old-fashioned boombox these days?
The experiment was short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful. But looking back now, it reveals something about our society's attitudes towards sex and technology: we're always looking for new ways to explore intimacy and pleasure, even if sometimes we fail spectacularly in doing so.