Published on February 13th, 2012 | by James Johnson
0Sony Increases Whitney Houston Song Prices on iTunes, Attempts To Cash In On Her Death
Singer Whitney Houston died on Saturday at the young age of 48-years-old and almost immediately following her death the team at UK iTunes were called out in an attempt to cash in on her passing. A quick analysis of the singers songs show a sharp increase in pricing from Saturday night through Sunday morning. For example the singers greatest hits album which was selling for a rather decent $8 jumped to $12.50 overnight.
Following the increase Apple immediately began realizing the backlash the move had made, for example one fan told DigitalSpy:
“It is just a case of iTunes cashing in on the singer’s death, which in my opinion is totally parasitic.”
But it turns out Apple probably wasn’t to blame, UK news reporting website the Guardian says Sony, not iTunes, was responsible for the change which was quickly reversed.
Sony quickly increased the wholesale price of the singers 1997 Ultimate Collection which led to iTunes pricing increase.
In an amusing moment Sony tried to claim that after the singers death they examined the wholesale price and realized it was wrong all along.
With seven of Whitney Houston’s albums in Amazon’s music top 10 this was definitely a case of Sony trying to profit off the singers death.