Does cheaper mean more sales?

So last year, Pond5 increased the minimum price of audio tracks to 15 dollars. I was curious as to the result because, previously, my tracks were all set at 5 dollars a pop. I was surprised that after the price increase, my sales also increased, so I finally decided to walk my prices up to the little advisor panel on the upload panel to 23 dollars to see what would happen.

My sales tanked.

I'm back down to $15 and I'm getting a little bit of sales back. But I'm also trying to analyse what happened. In my mind, the sales might have been holiday related, from October to late December. Looking around, I'm seeing people throw around prices like $40 dollars per track, so I'm wondering what the general thought on price point is.

So do people generally try to avoid the rock-bottom prices of tracks because they view these tracks as sub-par quality? Or do you think it is the opposite, where people don't have that much money to throw around these days and need to pay as little possible?

I listened to your popular tracks, imho you can atleast duoble the price of your clips, maybe you won't gonna sell as much clips as before, but you would make more money.. Also keep in mind that there is this thing called perceived value.... People have money, believe me. Considering that there is no license tiers in pond5, 30-50$ is a fair price. Maybe some other authors wuold share their opinions :)

Wish you many sales this year, Cheers!

Your drop in sales was just a coincidence,increase your prices.

Does cheaper means more sales?
Yes.
Does cheaper means more $$$?
It depends.
You have to find 'golden middle' of that curve.
I found 49$ price for music track is pretty lucrative comparing with 30$ i had before.
Now Im stuck to it.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to put it all at 40 dollars for this month just to see what happens.

i get pissed sometimes that ppl price at those ridiculous x9.99 prices.
its wrong imo, like, 49 is neither 40 nor 50, its just playing a trick on the clients' minds.
i for one do not like that.

but i do see it works :|

i experimented a lot with prices, and after a lot pf price varying,
i came to the conclusion that i dont have any conclusion.

but for now i keep sfx at $10, which seemed to me to bring more
profit then at $2 or $5 or $6 or $8.

havent found the sweetspot for music though... i keep it at 20
short stuff and edits, and 40 the full lengths.
i went a while with 90 for full and 60-70 for edits and shorts.
some ppl do indeed have money, but having only one music sale per month
was not pleasant. havin said that, last month i had only one music sale again,
although now i price them at 20.

i dont get it either...
but im pretty positive the 10 is the best price for sfx after many experiments.

Hey, no need to anger to .99-ish numbers ;)
I found 49 much more beautiful than ordinary fifty.
When I imagine 49 I imagine sevens and symmetry. Maybe square.
Kinda magic stuff here :)
Its just because beauty - not because market efficiency.

I know this is about audio, but I am also trying to figure out the pricing for video. Seems like $35 is good for me. I sometimes don't get sales, and then I drop it down to like $17, but it doesn't seem to change the number of sales. One day, I'll wake up and I've sold 3 clips for $35, then, nothing for a month. I've seen people selling clips for $80 that are no better than other clips for $10. After reading this, maybe I should go for $39? (or $29? so hard to figure out!)

Remember price sets a perceived level of quality. I don't think I've ever heard from a top seller here that they were glad they dropped their price. Almost if not completely unanimous; higher fair prices makes more profit. The number sold is meaningless information, it's the profit that is all that matters for both the artist and the buyers using it in their commercial profit use.

yes,

except that the number sold does have a meaning.
the more sales you've had, the more sales you will have.

the algorithm by which you are relevant when clients
search for stuff puts you in an advantage if you had
more sales than the other guy thatz also trying to sell.

so if you regularly have some 30 sales per month, you are
more likely to sell to 50 than the other guy that regularly has 5
per month is to sell to 10. or so i understand from the staff.

i thnk its gotta be a balance between the right price that suits you
and the number of sales you think you will have with that price.

on the other hand its so messed up, i sometimes wonder if even the
programmers of pond5's engine know what they are doing.