From time to time I give a look to the best selling tracks to know what works better and to find inspiration for new tracks but I end up to feel upset because almost all the best selling tracks are sold at 5-9$.
I’m not talking about logos or sound effects, but 3 to 7 minutes long tracks that have probably taken some time and knowledge to be produced.
Isn’t it a job? Why undervalue it?
Is this a second job? Why ruin the job of other professional musicians?
I’m sure that this topic has already been discussed, but I just wanted to express my disappointment as I’m trying to make a job out of my music.
Thank you for your time!
Marco
35 Likes
It happens because the community values and comradeship has long gone and has been replaced with those who have devalued the marketplace resulting in this. I too for the past 5 uploads have gone to $9 and can say that as a business I am at a loss with what will happen next. It does not help that Envato continues to install the Elements banner at the top of Audio Jungle regardless of what we as authors have complained about constantly - I guess we are all expendable and the show must go on.
If you can’t beat them, join them.
9 Likes
Yes, indeed, I also find all this very sad and not normal!!! 
I’d rather make 2 sales at $20 a month, than $8 to $5!!! 
5 Likes
Everything needs some time and knowledge to make it happen. Which level you’re on is individual. You might need to see more than this marketplace to be at the right place for you, as things change from time to time, but ppl also do get lazy.
As for the prices, market dictates those. So, if someone is making quality songs pretty quickly and wishes to sell those at low rates, that’s just fine.
2 Likes
While I can certainly understand frustrations, please also remember the dangers around veering into pricing discussions.
In Australia, as in many countries, there are strict laws governing pricing conduct. In particular, it’s strictly prohibited to have an agreement, arrangement or understanding between competing businesses (such as two authors) about what price point to sell at. Think of this as needing to avoid any discussion on the specifics of how you’re pricing your item. How to price your work is a commercial decision you will need to make for yourself.
If you’re an author, please don’t discuss with other authors what prices you’ll be setting on your items (either on our forums or anywhere else for that matter).
Please see this Help Center article for more information.
Thanks!
3 Likes
I fully support you, but unfortunately everyone doesn’t care
6 Likes
I feel like it’s the same reason why a company like Walmart can sell their products at a discount, while if you found the same products in a small local store they would cost more.
These high profile sellers on AudioJungle already have tons of traffic coming to their page, so they can afford to sell at a lower price because they make it up in pure volume of sales. These sellers have probably also determined that the $9 price point (or whatever it happens to be) is the optimal price point to maximize overall revenue from that kind of track.
However that doesn’t mean that the same price would work for your channel or mine, because our traffic is way less. As a beginner I think the correct move is to price the track what you think is reasonable for the time investment. I just joined last month and already sold several tracks in the $20 to $30 range… and from what I’ve heard you can go even higher than that and still make sales.
Later when you have a bigger portfolio and have established yourself in the marketplace, it’s maybe time to think about lower prices to take advantage of the higher traffic. Then maybe experiment and see if $9 really is the “sweet spot.”
4 Likes
Believe me, it only damages the already crumbling health of the marketplace and the authors who are still making efforts to dignify our craft. I did some price dumping for a few weeks and there’s nothing more discouraging than selling a track that probably took you days to produce (let alone the gear and study) and seeing $0,5 in your balance. Also, the traffic didn’t significantly change. It was a lose-lose move.
Envato gave us the freedom to shoot ourselves in the face. I choose not to.
10 Likes
I agree with most what has been said. Value your work properly to your own standards.
Also, a track can sometimes find revenue in other platforms or in other ways, sometimes even years from now. This is just one place to sell.
6 Likes
I thought some people are doing this the other way around. Dumping price to get more traffic to their profile and then start pricing their new items higher or even keep on doing the same tactic, I don’t know.
The whole situation is just not looking very lovely for many of us atm…
3 Likes
Yeah, I’m skeptical that such an approach is optimal for long term success… but I would believe you that there are people out there trying it.
I feel like for broadcast licenses especially, there’s not that much advantage to pricing low. If I were looking for a broadcast license I would find the right track for the project and buy it regardless of the price (as long as it wasn’t reasonably high), rather than looking for the cheapest option.
7 Likes
It’s a competitive market. Tools are getting better and easier to use. Distinguishing by musicality is more difficult. Clients can choose lots of low priced items. When you’re not picky they don’t need the latest standard. Or maybe they can get it anyway at a low price. Everyone has to decide if it works for them and what’s the right price to sell. I don’t condemn low pricing. For me it doesn’t work. But what’s wrong when someone values it’s own music at a low price? Regardless the strategy that’s behind. Don’t look too much at what others do, but focus on your own strategy!
5 Likes
I agree partially with you. However, the main issue here is that when a lot of people dump their price it starts to affect us too, who value our time and work. It just sadly influences the whole market and probably the Envato algorithm as well. That’s why there’s this wave of anger.
10 Likes
I’ve come to the depressing conclusion that suggesting changes here in the Envato forums will have no effect, except to maybe raise the blood pressure. This price dumping pestilence is totally baffling to me. I get the “exposure” reason for doing it, but seriously, when everybody else is doing the same thing, what extra exposure are you really getting?
Envato refuses to comment on the situation. I suppose they feel like they have said all that needs to be said about it. But it’s not just about their silly “we can’t set a minimum price because of antitrust laws…” stance on the matter, but also their active promoting and encouraging of it that we want to at least have a conversation about.
Look how many +1s there are in EightBall’s thread. And that’s just the very few authors who even check the forums. So many great ideas and arguments for change have been posted in these forums by intelligent, inventive and creative authors, and Envato deigns to respond to not a single one. The only change that seems to happen here really, are things like this monstrosity:
What is that? The Audio Jungle zygote?
11 Likes
Has anyone of you here asked one of the “price dumper” why he’s doing that? I really would be interested in their reasons and if there are reasonable arguments. And I mean not an answer:"…because I can."
And, what I also want to know: Are they aware of the impact to the community here from what they doing? Is their intention to crash the music market? Okay, maybe it sounds a bit naive - I know we’re living in capitalism. But I have never seen something like this before.
Maybe dumb questions…but anyway - I can stand a shitstorm.
5 Likes
Hi @MV_Music_Production !
There are many reasons, and in my opinion, here are some of them (most poisonous and corrupting the value of music):
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Struggle to get into the category of top tracks (the more sales, the faster the track gets there).
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Also, the struggle for the top track through self-service and self-purchases (at a reduced price, it is obviously cheap).
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Copy-paste tracks. Wrote 1 track and made 29 clones of tracks.
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Race to the bottom and prejudice that cheap tracks are bought more often than tracks at normal prices.
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Frivolous attitude to their work. Disrespect for yourself and your work.
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Following pricing trends in other terrible dumping markets which will soon close from the inability to exist due to extremely low profits.
My thoughts. 
15 Likes
I think, in the end, it comes down to an ethical or even ideological perspective of how a market ecosystem should work. Let’s imagine: for years you sell shoes at a price that’s considered fair (or even cheap) by your community of customers and allows you and your family to make a living. One day you wake up and there’s a new shoe store next to yours that’s willing to sell almost the exact models you have but almost for free (let’s not forget it’s from 0,5 to 1 the author makes when he five bucks). Needless to say, the new shoe store can not make a living out of those prices; he merely intends to bankrupt your business, keep your customers and eventually set normal prices.
Let’s not put the focus on the ethical aspects of this, which BTW should matter A LOT IMO but for most authors here they obviously don’t. The truth, and I’ve seen this around many times, is that the minute he sets everything to realistic prices, a new shoe’s store will open and the devaluation cycle will start all over again. In a very short term the craft of making shoes will be tremendously and irreversibly undervalued and only the tax/fee collector benefits.
This happens because there’s a “legal framework” (call it state laws, marketplace terms, or whatever) that allows it as long as the shoe stores pay a good share of taxes and fees. If there was at least a reasonable minimum price this would not happen or at least not as badly as it is now.
Just my point of view. The more we do it, the worst it’ll get.
11 Likes
this is the result of getting rid of regulations, besides, back then , when self pricing was actually proclaimed, i was complaining about it as this was not putting all people on an equal footing , as before … and here are the consequences indeed (many people do not buy according to quality but price … i am also not evoking the envato elements thing, which is a disaster, too). This is getting even worse when this kind of system is facing a major crisis like the covid which is basically ruining sales in every marketplace indeed. Luckily , we did not have this type of problem too much in GR but we are facing some others that are not any better , as a few guys with portfolios of 3K or 4K+ items - in just a few years , these guys came to join at the same time as i joined, i have 400 items they have 10 times more , all is said … how could quality and originality actually be there with such a huge productivity - turn out to have had, at a time, 19 slots out of 24 dedicated to him in the first page of search engine results when u were typing a certain research … this combined with price issues just means that people do not select according to quality but price in many cases and that sales are not always reflecting the fact that someone provides buyers with high quality stuffs
@RedLeafMusic
i agree with u and same goes with the marketplace system in the first place BTW (before this kind of system, indeed, work had much more of a decent price - marketplace basically means volume system in any case - and this system made a good deal of people get into precarious situations by making agencies, studios and companies get weaker), which means a lot
@criskcracker
well the answer is not that difficult to find out indeed, by lowering the price they will always attract a lot of people who are not getting much knowledge of what our works are all about and cannot really determine what is good and what is not or what quality work is all about and who will consider almost exclusively the price in an attempt to increase profits , regardless of what this is implying for authors. The concerned people - people practicing dumping - just see an opportunity to get a “bigger part of the cake” and focus on volume rather than any other thing. The problem is that these people have a very short term view and on the long run they are just shooting a bullet in their own foot without realizing about it. That would be ok if they did only something wrong for themselves in the long run, but the reality is that they do something wrong for the whole profession, fro all fellow authors and for next generations as well (not to mention that by devaluing work , this is the opened door for us to be replaced by automated systems). As for the great ideas and solutions offered here that are left without answer , do not wander why , the day that big multi million companies will start making decisions for the common good rather than for their shareholders, pls let me know , i wanna see this before i pass away lol. Unfortunately most of the latest decisions that have been made turn out to bring rather negative things to the table for authors and despite complaints of many , things were pushed through all the same. Same goes with the different programs, like elements, which are continuing to push inequality between authors , as all authors cannot join and which are being given a very huge promotion unlike traditional marketplaces where all people can take part in, which is very sad to think about to say the least
3 Likes
well i can tell u that many people feel like that, as soon as u put something in promotion, this is that u are still making profit out of it despite the low price, so that when u are not promoting the concerned items, people feel like that they are just being cheated …
2 Likes
Hi @WormwoodMusic !
They have their own $4 fixed ( and +%) and a bunch of new authors, so this mess is happening. And unfortunately, now we see a division into the AudioJungle market (Envato) and the authors of AudioJungle.
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