Sorry the XS rate has gone down, since so many print outlets are disappearing.

They don't announce price increases and decreases these days.

L and XL are going up, it makes sense too.

In the 'unplus' collection/s?

So are we to take from this change that the higher E+ prices (esp having so many in such a short time) had resulted in sales dropping? I can't think of any other reason they'd do it.

So far, they've left P+ prices alone, thank heavens.

As far as XS files getting cheaper, I think when you jack the price up so much higher for the smallest size - XXL sizes, E+ is double exclusive price; with the old pricing of 12 credits, E+ was triple, and it's now down to 2.5 times - perhaps you hope to have the buyer pick a larger size to get "better" value? There's a local ice cream store that has three sizes and the medium size is only a few cents more than the small. It always feels like such a waste to order the small size, which is I'm sure what they intended.

Problem with that strategy is that many people will just go somewhere else for ice cream And I still see a decent proportion of XL and up sizes being sold, whether for bus wraps or magazines, who knows, but I think the demise of large size sales isn't here yet.

When you talk about "sales drop", I think we need to differentiate two things. DLs drop, yes, very badly; revenue drop, heck, no.

I guess my question was, from iStock's point of view, if the strategy of upping the price of E+ was working well - that the drop in downloads was more than offset by the rising prices - why would they cut prices?

I think if you look, L and XL went down too - from 45 to 40 and from 48 to 45. XXL went from 55 to 50

They only cut the XS price, but increase the prices for L and XL at the same time. It makes sense. Because XS images are more likely to be used by small businesses and bloggers. For those who buy L and XL images, it's perceivable they can afford high prices.

I don't agree with your post "Because XS images are more likely to be used by small businesses and bloggers." to me you thats like saying small pizza stores make small pizzas!

LOL. I'm sure the servers will crash with all the people taking advantage of that massive 2-3 credit savings.

So they seemed to have found the ceiling on price increases.

A lot of people have been reporting dismal sales, or have had downloads drop but the price increases keep the money stable. But with dropping downloads and dropping prices, now what?

And the E+/Getty thing sounds nice but I don't think it will help much. My GI average earnings per download are getting close to being the same as IS.

So they seemed to have found the ceiling on price increases.

A lot of people have been reporting dismal sales, or have had downloads drop but the price increases keep the money stable. But with dropping downloads and dropping prices, now what?

And the E+/Getty thing sounds nice but I don't think it will help much. My GI average earnings per download are getting close to being the same as IS.

Is there something going on here. Lets see, cut commissions, then cut prices, which means lower pay for us, but things stay the same for them.

Oh that's right, this is just the result of cheap price competition from the new agencies who know nothing except "we sell for less". And then people upload their whole collection to the new copy cat agencies that drive value and prices down, and think that's a good business decision... OK 

Thanks everyone, your support for the fly by night mini agencies, running from someones basement, it just drove another nail into the profitable markets.