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Meanwhile...

Sony Hiked Up the Price of Whitney Houston’s Music Less Than an Hour After Her Death

by Eric Limer | 2:47 pm, February 13th, 2012

In this age of rampant social media, death has gotten a bit complicated, especially for celebrities. Sometimes you’re reported dead before your time, and if you have passed, it’s only a matter of time — 30 seconds or so — before widespread, uncontained discussion begins. When it came to light this weekend that Whitney Houston had died, the predictable Twitter-splosion occurred, part an parcel with off-color jokes and heart-felt condolences, but something more calculatedly irreverent may have been bubbling up behind the scenes. Some are accusing Sony of initiating a price hike on one of Houston’s albums presumably in order to capitalize on the “free” publicity.

A mere 30 minutes after the announcement of Houston’s death became widespread, the price of her 2007 album “The Ultimate Collection” nearly doubled on iTunes from £4.99 ($7.87) to £7.99 ($12.61) as reported by Digital Spy. By Sunday evening, the album had dropped back to its original price. Initially, ire was directed at iTunes, but it has since been reported that the price change was caused by Sony who adjusted the wholesale price of the album causing iTunes to process an automatic adjustment.

What reason could Sony have for this adjustment besides trying to make bank on the singer’s death? Sony argues that it was all a mistake, and that the original price was inaccurate. According to Sony, Houston’s album had been under-priced for a while now, her death simply called attention to the mistake, which was promptly fixed. Even if this was the case — which there’s no hard evidence to suggest it wasn’t — it was a probably a mistake for Sony to do what they did. Regardless of the reason, it was going to wind up looking tasteless. Sony did eventually back down, dropping the price again, but that just raises more questions about what was actually going on in the first place.

Price-gouging or not, the price hike was certainly a misstep. Either way, the real question is whether Sony wasn’t thinking, or whether Sony just doesn’t care.

(via The Next Web)

Relevant to your interests

  • Sebastien Trudel

    Maybe they were afraid that their stock of MP3 would be depleted when everyone started buying her album.

  • Sebastian McNab

    How dare you insinuate that Sony is a souless profit machine… Good god man, is that how little you think of our corporate benefactors?

  • Anonymous

    Utter fucking scum, then we already knew that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/bucur.marian Marian Bucur

    They just wanna make tons of money out of her death. What’s wrong with that ?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jamie-Murphy/1788049486 Jamie Murphy

    I can imagine those executives at Sony Music thinking: “So sad to hear about Whitney Houston, but Cha-ching!”

  • AMP2020

    If some of it reaches her kid it’s maybe not the end of the world… but yeah, still sleezy.

  • Anonymous

    Vultures show more respect for the dead -fuck you, Sony!

  • AIiveStiIIKickin

    So what?
    Life goes on.

  • Anonymous

    “According to Sony, Houston’s album had been under-priced for a while now, her death simply called attention to the mistake, which was promptly fixed.”

    I can just see it now:

    Sony Exec 1: Hey, dude, did you hear?
    Sony Exec 2: Hear what?
    Sony Exec 1: Whitney Houston just died.
    Sony Exec 2: Really?  That’s so sad.  But, you know, that reminds me, her album is underpriced on iTunes.  We should fix that right now while we’re thinking about it.
    Sony Exec 1: Yeah.  Definitely. I’ll take care of that now.
    Sony Exec 2: We’re awesome executives.  Let’s give ourselves a bonus.

  • expatpatriot

    I’m told that necrophilia is much more satisfying if the body is still warm. Are there any Sony execs around to confirm this?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Neil-Murphy/100000566621491 Neil Murphy

    d e m o n o i d . c o m

  • Anonymous

    They didn’t even wait for her body to get cold before the dollar signs lit up in their eyes.

  • Love of Country

    Whitney’s heirs are prolly the ones who tipped off Sony.

  • Anonymous

    This constant greed is becoming hard to live with!

  • http://www.proactivepolitics.blogspot.com/ Norbit Peters

    Maybe, as the self-serving pre-grammy partygoers explained – while her body lay still warm just a few floors above – “she would have wanted them to”!

  • http://www.proactivepolitics.blogspot.com/ Norbit Peters

     No, but plenty of pre-Grammy party people, while her body was still in the tub just a few floors up.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OJ766ICBQDKEJY34J252S7J5CE Pat Mulligan

    nothing new there………disgusting

  • GuestWho

    Once more, music corporations encouraging piracy.

  • Kim34782974982

    My friend just met a chocolate man on Blackwhitemeet.COMit’s where for men and women looking for interracial’ship for a fabulous lifestyleIt’s a nice place for black white sing’les, to interact with each other…no bounds or extremes in front of true love.

  • GuestWhat12

    Soon they will be killing celebrities so they can make money off their death…Don’t doubt me on this.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003105863276 Political Dookie

    I’m betting you can still score a deal on bobby brown’s crap. 

  • Anonymous

    LOL…So what’s the big deal?? Isn’t it all about profit

  • Larry Braxton

    C’mon folks.  I’m sure that no one is surprised that Sony is being Sony and doing what Sony does.  Maybe some of this money will “trickle down” to Bobbie Christina, but I doubt it.   The next surprise will come when the fans learn that the performers make little to nothing from record sales – regardless of the music company.  The money goes to the persons who wrote the songs, not the persons who sing the songs.  Were it not for tours and concerts, singers would all be on food stamps.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Frank-Calderale/100003184080823 Frank Calderale

    Didn’t D. H. Lawrence and Melville predict that industrialization would shallow us?
    Seems to me Sony is a manifestation of a lost soul.


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