They say the value of an artist’s work increases after he or she passes away, but not quite like this. Sony Music and Apple are both currently being criticized by fans in the United Kingdom for raising the price of soul and R&B singer Whitney Houston’s greatest hits album just hours after the artist died Saturday afternoon.
The particular 1997 album, The Ultimate Collection, was priced at £4.99 (or approximately $8) in the Apple iTunes Store before Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m Pacific time from unspecified causes. At roughly 4 a.m. the following day, the price bumped up to £7.99 (or approximately $12.60), leaving millions of fans who wanted to commemorate her death scrutinizing the music giants for attempting to profit off this global tragedy.
“The album itself is great so please don’t be put off purchasing it, just that you will merely be lining some fatcat’s pocket before Whitney’s lifeless body is cold,” a customer warned on the UK entertainment site DigitalSpy.
But was it all just an interestingly-timed accident? Apparently, when news of the singer’s death broke, Sony Music, which owns the rights many of Houston’s back catalog, was prompted to review its catalog of Houston’s albums. There, it realized its wholesale price of The Ultimate Collection had been incorrect in the first place. During this price change, the digital album became entirely unavailable for download for several hours, and when it came back online, the retail price had increased by more than 60 percent. However, since Apple technically has the responsibility of setting the selling price on the iTunes Store, fans are unsure of who to blame for this seemingly exploitative move.
“To say I am angry is an understatement,” another fan commented. ”I feel it is just a case of iTunes cashing in on the singer’s death, which in my opinion is totally parasitic.”
Despite the price hike, analysts anticipate Houston’s albums to dominate charts over the next few weeks. By Monday morning, The Ultimate Collection was the second best-selling album on iTunes. The legendary singer’s other greatest hits album, Whitney Houston – The Greatest Hits, followed in third place and was not affected by the price increase. Neither Sony nor Apple have commented on the price change fiasco, though Apple has restored the price of The Ultimate Collection to £4.99 on iTunes as of Monday.
Houston, 48, was found dead submerged underwater in the bathroom of her Los Angeles hotel room on the eve of the Grammy Awards ceremony during which she was set to attend a pre-Grammy event. The cause of her death is still being investigated, with results of her autopsy slated to slowly unveil within the following weeks. The singer is survived by her ex-husband Bobby Brown and their teenage daughter, Bobbi Kristina.
Image credit: Egghead06
this is disgusting and completely believable.
So if they are a business that acts irregardless of the public good then why create laws they benefit from that come at the expense of that same public good? In short if they want to charge for music however they like then they can do so without the training wheels of copyright law to hold them up.
That’s why itunes and Sony music will NEVER have the market share Napster did. People love groups that are not for-profit as I’m sure Napster wouldn’t molest the market as a niche since death morally is not a niche. Instead the Lars of the world needed a ferrari instead of a toyota and cried foul giving the power back to the record studios that napster was trying to help contain. Now Sony will come out with a Whitney movie and profit more… Look who has the Steve Jobs movie rights… Sony. Too bad the dead has no say in this.
It was douchey of them to do that … Srsly
Supply and Demand
Corporate greed, at its finest
It was douchey of them to do that … Srsly
Im pretty sure the people bitching don’t even buy music suck a dick and die.
Simply DISGUSTING.
illumninati sacrifice. so they just trying to make back their money!!! Figures i guess. typical music labels greed!!!
It’s amazing how the vultures of the world come out when one’s rights to money leaves the cookie jar. Whitney is to Crack as Sony is to Money. Poor Whitney, first it was Bobby beating her for the last hit, now Sony and apple are fighting for the last hit(will always love you).
Horrible to do this to some one with the voice of an “ANGEL”!
Apple changed the price back to normal. Did Sony?
Joe Benton you’re being completely ridiculous. The existence of copyright laws do not give the government the right – legal, moral or otherwise – to dictate how much a business charges for its products. That’s like saying that because a grocery store benefits from laws against shoplifting, the government has the right to tell them how much to charge for a loaf of bread. Stop being such a drama queen. Prices go up and down all the time with supply and demand. If you don’t like a price, take your business elsewhere.
Yes a business is allowed to charge any irate amount they want unless the govt dictated price regulation. Unfortunately Apple and Sony are for profit businesses and not morally objected groups. Of course they would jack the price up… Look how Sean Combes raked in dough when Biggie died. Business’ are not required to have repsect for the dead… In another word if Sony was in existance 100 years ago… There would be no supuku… they would rename it Sony.