iStockphoto slashes its prices long-term

It's already one of our favourite stock photo libraries - now iStockphoto, a wholly owned subsidiary of Getty Images, has slashed its prices, cutting the cost of its non-exclusive photos by 50 percent.

And it's not just a seasonal sale: the company describes its new pricing strategy as 'Forever', with a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer: '*The lawyers said we couldn't promise infinity but you get the gist'.

Do the math

Quite how much you'll save on each specific purchase is a little complicated, because you first have to buy 'credits' in bulk. The more you buy at once, the cheaper they are. For example, if you buy 30 credits (£37.50), they cost £1.25 each, but if you buy 1,000 for £1,101, they're just £1.10 each.

Prices for non-exclusive images from the library used to be: 1, 4, 7, 10, 12, 15 and 18 credits depending on file size. Now those prices have dropped to a cheaper (and neater) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 credits respectively.

Math aside, it's clearly a big move on price by iStockphoto. And we wonder if this will herald the start of a price war amongst stock photo libraries - good for customers, but a potentially worrying development for photographers?

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What stock image library do you prefer? Let us know your views in the comments below!