{"id":363331,"date":"2025-12-22T08:43:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/363331\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T08:43:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:43:26","slug":"inside-hollywoods-audio-erotica-craze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/363331\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Hollywood\u2019s Audio Erotica Craze"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cYou deserve to be loved and thoroughly ruined\u201d is not necessarily something The Summer I Turned Pretty fans would expect to hear the show\u2019s star Chris Briney<\/a> tell them. But in a world where celebs can inspire parasocial relationships and fan fiction, the 27-year-old actor and other hot stars are giving voice to such fantasies.<\/p>\n

\n\tBriney, Andrew Scott, Manny Jacinto<\/a>, Tom Blyth<\/a>, Jamie Campbell Bower<\/a>, Victoria Pedretti, Jesse Williams, Lucien Laviscount, Thomas Doherty and Katherine Moennig are among the actors who have sultrily lent their voices to original audio erotica stories on the app Quinn.<\/p>\n

\n\tDescribed as being \u201cmade by women, for the world,\u201d Quinn was designed to help listeners be a main character in their fantasy, with stories putting female pleasure at the forefront. Now, the app has recruited Hollywood stars.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmid a growing demand for romance content, the collaborations offer all the titillation of a traditional bodice ripper with the extra spice of having a well-known voice spin sexual scenarios directly into your ear, with lines like, \u201cI wanted her to strip me, straddle me, lay me bare,\u201d \u201cCan you open your legs for me?\u201d and \u201cThat\u2019s my good girl.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tQuinn founder Caroline Spiegel<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAri Michelson\/Courtesy of Subject<\/p>\n

\n\tQuinn founder Caroline Spiegel \u2014 sister of Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel \u2014 launched the app in 2021 and began enlisting Hollywood talent last year. The first recruit was Scott, aka Hot Priest from Fleabag. \u201cThey sort of started to really be a key marketing initiative for us,\u201d Spiegel tells The Hollywood Reporter of the strategy. \u201cI think it\u2019s been just so much more impactful that we could have realized.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAudio erotica proved to be impactful too for Spiegel, who after feeling like nothing was \u201cmade for women with women in mind\u201d discovered the audio erotica landscape after her personal journey with an eating disorder, experiencing a loss of libido and struggling to feel \u201cconnected\u201d to her body. \u201cVisual erotic content made me feel more disconnected,\u201d she explains. But after hearing audio erotica on \u201cniche internet communities\u201d like on Reddit or Tumblr, Spiegel says the difference was notable.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was rooted in storytelling and imagination, and it didn\u2019t trigger comparison. That shift was meaningful for me, and it ultimately led to starting Quinn. If audio could do that for me, I thought many others might be looking for the same thing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter deciding to cultivate her own solution for the loss of desire with Quinn, Spiegel learned that pitching the idea to investors at the time proved to be a guessing game.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have found that you can really never judge a book by its cover in this realm. I would go into meetings with certain investors who had a reputation of being cool young investors, and they would be totally prudish and put off by Quinn,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThen I would go talk to some older, more buttoned up people, and they would totally get it and vice versa. So, you can\u2019t anticipate what people\u2019s relationship to sex and shame is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Scott narrates The Queen\u2019s Guard.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Quinn<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving raised $13.5 million from venture capital firms and launching in 2021, the app now has \u201chundreds of thousands of subscribers,\u201d she says, 80\u202fpercent between the ages of 24 and 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile there are numerous platforms and approaches for audio erotica, Quinn is composed of entirely creator-driven content with a Spotify-like model of letting users follow favorite creators and offering curated recommendations. Adding collaborations with stars has given it mainstream appeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSays Spiegel: \u201cIt\u2019s storytelling without a prescriptive visual. It\u2019s very freeing. For sexually explicit content, it\u2019s really important because sexy looks different to everyone.\u201d The intent of enlisting Hollywood talent was to offer a way to share audio erotica that \u201cfelt approachable and not intimidating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn each of the stories, the actor directly addresses the listener, who is thereby cast as the main character and sex-scene partner. Stories can vary from a sapphic spy drama to a medieval romance to a passionate tryst on the beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tQuinn tends to pitch to stars \u201cwith a large, engaged female fan base.\u201d Topping app listeners\u2019 wish list for narrators, according to user feedback? Pedro Pascal, Dev Patel, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jensen Ackles. The most successful narrators thus far have been Briney, Williams and Bower, says Spiegel.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith a growing roster of celebrity narrators, Spiegel says getting top talent to say yes is still an uphill battle. \u201cAround 50\u202fpercent of our pitches get entertained. But we are improving that every day,\u201d Spiegel adds. \u201cI would say people either get the message or they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDeals can take anywhere from a week to months to iron out, depending on the star and their level of involvement. Spiegel says they \u201cpay talent at competitive rates, and compensation varies based on the actor, the scope of the project and the amount of time they\u2019ll spend in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPerformers will be offered various options on scripts, which are penned by the app\u2019s small in-house writing team, with contributions by a broader network of freelance scriptwriters.\u00a0For each original, a writer who can \u201cbring the right tone and world to life\u201d is chosen for the project. \u201cWe find writers from everywhere \u2014 independent authors, screenwriters interested in audio, audio drama writers, and more,\u201d Spiegel says.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tQuinn\u2019s creators screen<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey\u2019ll choose what script feels best to them. A lot of them kind of become co-creators,\u201d Spiegel says of collaborating with stars.\u00a0\u201cI think, generally, I\u2019ve found that screen actors really like audio narration \u2014\u00a0they don\u2019t have to worry about hair and makeup, blocking, etc. and can really focus on the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe recording process lasts from eight to 12 hours. Just as with films and TV, stars can work with an intimacy coordinator, who in this case is focused on \u201csupporting the breath\u201d for moans and heavy breathing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn one of Quinn\u2019s behind-the-scenes videos, Gilded Age star Blyth recalled getting the offer: \u201cMy first thought was, \u2018This is different.\u2019 And then I read it, and I got it. There\u2019s something bold about telling a story this intimate entirely through sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBower (Stranger Things) described his own narration as feeling like \u201cfan fiction coming to life a bit more.\u201d Meanwhile, Jacinto (Freakier Friday) joked that though he was up for the challenge of taking on this type of project, he didn\u2019t want his parents to listen to it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt first, we weren\u2019t even sure if people would do it or people would like it,\u201d Spiegel says. But in an AI-driven age, when a Hollywood heartthrob\u2019s voice can be deepfaked into any number of compromising fantasies, stars seem to relish the opportunity to take control of their erotic output. \u201cIt\u2019s actually kind of nice to be like, \u2018OK, I\u2019ll do this. I\u2019ll do it my way with my creative vision for how I want this to be,\u2019\u202f\u201d Spiegel says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen they see other actors, at first, they want to go see what this is,\u201d Spiegel explains of pitching stars. \u201cThey want to watch the trailers; they want to listen to the audios. They just want to see what the response has been in the past, see what the vibe is and if this is something they would consider.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond her goal of broadening Quinn\u2019s reach thanks to premium voice talent, Spiegel hopes the app can \u201cnormalize\u201d sex and desire for women. \u201cSex is a healthy and happy part of life that doesn\u2019t need to be swept into the dark corner of the internet or left on the cutting room floor,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a part of life, and it\u2019s part of all the best stories. Normalizing that sex, desire and pleasure isn\u2019t something you have to be ashamed about, especially for women. It has been so helpful in bringing that message to the forefront.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpiegel also sees a world in which audio erotica becomes an everyday norm, \u201cmaking it one of those subscriptions that everyone has, like Netflix and Spotify.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tQuinn\u2019s star collaborations may help challenge some taboos around erotic content, but for now the stars themselves were tight-lipped about their work with the app when contacted by THR.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor now, listeners can be the main characters in their fantasies all thanks to a pair of headphones with maybe a famous voice leading the charge. After all, they are there to please as Blyth teases in his story promo, \u201cPlay you something beautiful? Your wish is my command.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA version of this story appeared in the Dec. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou deserve to be loved and thoroughly ruined\u201d is not necessarily something The Summer I Turned Pretty fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[179039,88,165713,45344,84121],"class_list":{"0":"post-363331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-chris-briney","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jamie-campbell-bower","11":"tag-manny-jacinto","12":"tag-tom-blyth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}