Tosca Musk loves love. So much so, in 2016, she co-founded Passionflix, a niche streaming service dedicated entirely to romance.
Since its inception, Passionflix has produced 28 original films, four series and 11 short films, all adapted from the romantic fiction of female authors. Subscriptions (at an affordable price of $69 per year) are available in over 150 countries, giving audiences access to Passionflix’s growing collection of content, which ranges in tones from vanilla love interest to smut.
“Women’s stories should be told by women. That’s what we do,” says Musk, who works as a director and producer on Passionflix projects. “I want to make sure stories are told for the female gaze. “There is a delicate touch that I want to see in our films, and I want women to tell those stories.”
Musk adds that the live streaming service mostly attracts female subscribers, with an increasing number of men joining its ranks recently. Seven years after its launch, the company is still growing: “We are doing well,” she says. “We are growing every year. We are able to produce five or six films a year!”
If Musk’s surname sounds familiar, yes, she’s the sister of tech mogul Elon Musk. But let’s be clear: the passionate creative is an entrepreneur in her own right. “I’m the CEO and founder of a company that manages over 25 features,” she says. “At the end of the day, I’m Elon’s sister, Kimbal’s sister, and May’s daughter. But it’s all good. We’re a family.”
Musk speaks to diverse Hailing from Atlanta, where she’s directing Passionflix’s next series, adapted from JR Ward’s bestselling “Black Dagger Brotherhood” books, she explains how she created the steamy series from the ground up, why she’s passionate about putting women behind the camera and where she hopes Passionflix goes next.
Why do you want to start Passionflix? What gap in the streaming economy did you feel it would fill?
Our company was founded in 2016 and launched in 2017. There weren’t a lot of niche streaming platforms. There were a few, but not many. I joined a dedicated streaming platform support group at the time! It was all these new streamers starting out and just sharing ideas. I produced a show called “Tiki Bar TV,” which was direct-to-consumer. It’s been pretty amazing, the direct relationship with the consumer, when you make something so unique and specific, and how engaged that audience is. When it comes to the romance novel industry, it’s a very narrow and very attractive community. I’m a big fan of romance novels. So taking romance novels and creating a streaming platform where we can edit them as fans and the author wants to edit them, makes a lot of sense. We knew we could benefit directly from the romance community, because we were part of it.
Adapting such popular novels is of course a great way to gain a built-in fanbase, but I know that those fans must also have strong opinions. How does catering to audiences affect the way you choose your projects?
We work a lot with the author. I can’t please all the fans out there. I can do whatever I can do to satisfy myself as a fan, and then ask the author to back it up, or the author says, “This is what it looks like.” This is what I agree with. “This is what I see in my mind.” So I try to work with the author and please them. And if they’re happy, hopefully that will trickle down to the fans.
Speaking of fans, Passionflix has a “premium membership” that allows subscribers to visit movie sets and attend premieres. How did that idea come about?
The signatory members are the second generation of founding members. When we first started Passionflix, I went to the Romantic Times Writers Conference in May 2017. We had just finished filming our first movie, “Hollywood Dirt,” and created a trailer for it before it was cut. We presented it at RT to everyone in attendance – about 3,000 people. Additionally, this provided the opportunity to become a founding member of Passionflix. That’s why it was $100 for a two-year subscription. You get to visit the set, meet the actors and authors, and have your book signed. We registered over 4,000 people over the course of a month. It was a great way for us to be able to really launch our platform with a very strong base to start with, which is somewhat unusual. So, we asked, “What can we do to offer the next generation of founding members?” This was to create a signature membership.
It’s basically for the super fan who really wants to be a stronger part of our community, have early access to the content, and really wants to meet the cast and creator and experience what it’s like to be on set. I love him. It’s actually one of my favorite parts, because when the signing members come in, they know more about these books than I do – and I’ve read them all multiple times!
In “Black Dagger Brotherhood,” there are fan groups that discuss the lore and this whole world that’s been created. They came to shoot, and I wasn’t sure if (the characters) were wearing gun holsters in the scene or not. I’ll get an immediate response, and they’ll say whether or not they are. They will give me the answer. It’s nice to know that the fans are so interested and I love hearing from them on set, because we can change it up there, and then they can have influence and impact on how it’s filmed.
There is no shortage of romance novels being published today, especially with the advent of BookTok. How do you get past that and choose the right books to adapt?
This is actually difficult! There are many. Very fortunately now on our platform at Passionflix, a lot of authors will be very excited for us to adapt one of their books. Early on, it was a little harder — it wasn’t too hard — but they didn’t know who we were. And now, seven years later, they’re like, “Oh, great! And we have great references from other authors like Sylvain Renard and J.R. Ward. We actually have about 30 books that we’ve chosen to film. We’re working on those things while trying to bring in new adaptations and newer adaptations as well We tend to try to shoot something different for each next project.
We have the song “Lick,” which is a rock star love story. Then we have “A Lover’s Vow,” which is the end of Brenda Jackson’s three-part series, and that’s a little more on the suspense side, but still romantic of course. Then we have the Black Dagger Brotherhood, which are vampires and warriors. Earlier this year, we had The Air He Breathes, which is a very tearful and emotional film. We want to be everything to all romance lovers. At the same time, it introduces romance lovers by different authors. We love being able to show diversity within the romance genre. The romantic genre is not just one thing. It’s every type, just the main ingredient has to be romance.
You’re also passionate about adapting female authors and hiring women behind the camera. How has that served as a guiding light for you over the past seven years?
It’s really important for women to tell romance stories written by women. Doesn’t mean men can’t do it. Some can. But there’s something about Women that tells the story of what a woman goes through in a romantic relationship. There are many women who have not had the opportunity to direct or tell stories, because these opportunities are simply not offered to them. So this is important to me.
Is your subscriber base mostly women as well?
We are mostly women. I’m actually very impressed with how many guys have signed up, and how many have become huge fans. First it started with the friends and spouses of our viewers. They bought the subscription as a gift, then became obsessed. The reason we continue to grow is because people love love. They love seeing positive stories, and they want to experience those rollercoaster feelings knowing that they are in a safe place and that they will have a happy ending at the end of the day. This is not present in the rest of the content being produced now. We only tell stories with happy endings.
A recent study found that young people want less sex in movies and TV shows, but Passionflix has already doubled down on its steamy content. Have you encountered this situation in adjusting to romance?
This is news to me. They are definitely coming to Passionflix. Ultimately, Passionflix and romance novels aren’t necessarily just about sex. It’s about connection, communication and compromise in a relationship. There are other platforms that will only show gender. I think you’ll find a lot of it on HBO, without any commitment or relationship. Maybe we’re going back to the days before “50 Shades of Grey,” where people were trying to hide what they really wanted. Passionflix exists to remove shame from sexuality. We must enjoy this, we must seek our pleasure, we must accept pleasure, we must make sure that we are taken care of and that we are taking care of our partners. We are there to encourage emotional strength. We are there to encourage connection, communication and compromise in relationships and we are there to validate feelings. So I think whoever did this study is wrong.
What do you envision for the next seven years of Passionflix?
I see us becoming a household name. I want people to talk about Passionflix and be really excited about the next movie that comes out. I want us to be all about water coolers. I see us as a conversation piece with every woman. Passionflix and chill!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.