The world lost another great singing icon last Saturday, and many people are still in shock and mourning for diva Whitney Houston. Her electrifying voice sent chills down the spine of many who heard her rendition of “I Will Always Love You”, and it is rather sad to see corporations have no sense of shame at all by taking advantage of her passing. Sony Music purportedly raised the cost of Whitney’s greatest hits set on iTunes by more than 60% within hours after news of her death hit the wire.
The iTunes retail price of her album automatically rose to £7.99 from £4.99, and the 1997 album known as “The Ultimate Collection” ended up as the second top-selling album on iTunes on Monday morning. Apple then lowered the album’s price to its previous ceiling late on Sunday, after increasing the price at 4am PST. Sony Music does not think they did anything wrong, since they own most of the rights to Houston’s back catalogue, hence by increasing the wholesale price of The Ultimate Collection, the retail price of the popular album is automatically boosted – with Sony Music claiming that the wholesale price of Houston’s The Ultimate Collection was originally wrong. Don’t you think that this is too much of a coincidence? Apple, however, are the ones responsible for setting the price paid by fans of Houston.