MELISSA WHITLER | NBCU Fellow
Melissa@DallasVoice.com
Even if you’re single, there are ways to get in touch with your body and sexuality. Audio erotica is a new frontier for self-pleasure that is claiming space for LGBTQ people. Since launching in 2021, audio erotica app Quinn has amassed more 547,000 followers on TikTok and now includes more than 90 individual creators.
Founder Caroline Spiegel was inspired to create the app after her own struggle with sexual dysfunction in college. She found there was a lack of inclusive sexual wellness solutions, especially for women. While the FDA had approved more 30 sexual dysfunction solutions for men, there were zero for women.
Spiegel found audio erotica on Reddit and Tumblr and fell in love with the genre.
For the uninitiated, audio erotica is immersive audio roleplays that include spicy audio stories, guided masturbation and dirty talk. Quinn operates on a monthly subscription basis and features a library of Audios created by freelance voice actors.
The app has branched out, however, to include Quinn Originals recorded by celebrities including Kate Moennig, Victoria Pedretti, and Andrew Scott. They also just announced the series Quinn Reads, which will feature Audios written by bestselling authors.
Quinn is committed to being an inclusive space for queer voices and features F4F Audios, non-binary creators and Audios directed to a non-gendered audience.
One of the most popular non-binary creators goes by the alias Sweets. They described their experience with Quinn as totally awesome, because “It’s opened me up to avenues of creativity that I actually hadn’t yet considered.”
Sweets has been producing music since they were 13, so the recording process was already very comfortable for them. These Audios have expanded their interests, because, “As a musician, I didn’t quite give myself full permission to explore storytelling in a serious way, and that definitely is what Quinn is. It’s sexy storytelling.
“I’m given creative liberties that I deeply appreciate, and I really let myself get weird and out there.”
It is a space for people of all backgrounds. The creator known as Billie shared that she grew up surrounded by an evangelical community, “and there was always a lot of shame around sex and bodies and porn and masturbation. This work has made me so comfortable with it in ways that have carried over into my own life. It has been really empowering for my own sexuality.”
Listeners can feel that empowerment, too. Billie said her Audios “have helped people have their first solo orgasm or made them feel better about some of their own hang-ups.”
Another creator with the alias SweetLover makes inclusion a priority on her Audios. An experienced pro, SweetLover has been making Audios for five years after discovering the medium on reddit. As a Black woman, she has seen how words can be unintentionally hurtful and bring people out of the listening experience.
“There are certain people that aren’t catered to in mainstream work,” she said. “I want to make them feel seen, and I care about adding to the community. That’s what has kept me going over the years, I love to give people pleasure.”
SweetLover specializes in F4F work as well as trans-inclusive Audios. With a background in theater and writing, she does the whole production process herself, with a focus on the story building and character creation.
The voice actors are given creative control over what they post and how public they want to be, which allows for exploration and all different kinds of stories to be told. You can find tags like [friends to lovers], [aftercare], [fantasy] and everything in between.
Some creators adopt a persona while others are direct to listener or tell their stories in third person.
Sweets feels like “the creative freedom allows for much cooler content, because the voice actors are allowed to be themselves, and much better work gets released. You’re more attracted to them because the vibe is genuine.”
This creative freedom has allowed SweetLover to expand her work from simple office romance plots to more in-depth concepts including hairdresser, professional fighter and ceramics teacher.
Billie is personally a big fan of the direct to listener style for her Audios.
“As a long-time meditator app user, I feel like a lot of my inspiration came from that to start, not sexually but pacing, tone, voice. Then because I’ve been a reader and writer all my life, the more scripted audios came pretty naturally.
“In the beginning, I saw which audios really resonated with listeners, and that informed what I was making. I still do that, but I’m definitely more experimental at this point,” she explained.
Quinn has also been impactful in creating a community among listeners and creators. On the app listeners can leave comments on the Audios, as well as interact with creators on their social media platforms.
Sweets has found the comments “absolutely hilarious for the most part! People say the most entertaining and out-of-pocket things.”
Billie said,“It’s heartwarming and hilarious” reading people’s reactions to her work. “I have some of the best commenters. I laugh, and I cry, genuinely. Our community is also the most clever and filthy and fun.”
The app also offers Audios not related to sex and that are safe for work. Billie recently released a recording titled Take Care: Queer Affirmation and Encouragement with the tags [cultivating happiness] and [building resilience]. This was a response to the scary world events already piling up in 2025.
“I made the audio as much for myself as for my community,” Billie said. “There are many SFW audios on the app, which I think is such a great counterpoint to the spicy audios, because it is all about taking care of yourself and loving yourself. Even when it might feel like the world is full of hatred towards you.”
She continued, “Some people might see audios as silly, but they’re powerful. They can help you learn about your body and your sexuality, to experiment in a safe way and to find queer community when you might be closeted or not have one accessible to you.
“We all deserve to feel safe and good in our bodies. We all deserve pleasure.”
SweetLover emphasized how radical recording and listening to audio erotica can be.
“People don’t take into account how political it is,” she said. “It’s a way to take control of a narrative that might’ve been taken away from you. As creators we have a responsibility to take care of our listeners, so that they can reclaim and control their autonomy.”
One of the Audios she is most proud of is one for Black listeners titled Helping Take Your Braids Out.
“It was a fulfilling moment, because I was able to connect with people and have them appreciate it,” SweetLover said. “My listeners felt seen, and some were even emotional because they were able to embody their whole self.”
Sweets commented that they really appreciate that their job is “embodying creative freedom in a really unique, transgressive, and peculiar way.”
Quinn is a unique company not only for what it offers consumers, but also for how it treats their employees. Billie described the job as having “a lot of flexibility, great communication and generous pay.”
“When Quinn says they value their workers, they really mean it,” SweetLover said, adding that the company takes creators’ opinions into account and works to support them and keep them safe.
This empowerment is the driving force behind Quinn’s success. The app creates a safe space to experiment with sexuality and self-pleasure. Whether you’re single or in a relationship, exploration builds confidence and helps you learn what gets you off.
And if you’re still feeling hesitant, Billie encourages you to “Give it a try! Especially if mainstream porn gives you the ick. I would start by looking for tags of situations or kinks or sex acts that already turn you on or you’ve been curious about, and go from there. And don’t be afraid to try other gendered voices!”
SweetLover warns, “Prepare to have your mind blown and your whole world flipped upside down.”
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBC Universal.