Whitney Houston performs in New York on 1 September 2009. Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Record label Sony has apologised to consumers for raising the price on two of singer Whitney Houston’s albums in the UK mere hours after her death in Beverly Hills, California, on Saturday.
The price of the two albums, Greatest Hits and The Ultimate Collection, increased by about £3 each, which resulted in an automatic price increase on iTunes.
Sony issued an apology in a statement.
“Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mispriced on the U.K. iTunes store on Sunday,” Sony said. “When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologise for any offence caused.”
Many of Houston’s fans accused Sony and iTunes for capitalising on the celebrity’s death, taking to microblogging site Twitter to vent their ire and describing the price hike as “greedy” and “shameful”.
Demand for Houston’s music has been high, however. Seven of her titles are now in Amazon U.K.’s top 10 albums.
Houston, who was 48, will be laid to rest during a private service on 18 February in New Jersey.
