Sony and Apple wasted no time capitalizing on Whitney Houston’s untimely death, cranking up prices on her online music downloads.
According to London’s Guardian newspaper, the price of Whitney Houston’s album “The Ultimate Collection” increased by 60 percent around 4:00 a.m. Pacific Time Sunday — just 12 hours after the singer’s body was found in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton.
The report suggests Sony, who owns the rights to Houston’s music, went through her song catalog Saturday night and decided to raise the price of “The Ultimate Collection” on iTunes in the UK. The price of the album was raised from £4.99 to £7.99. Apple lowered the price to the original cost later on Sunday.
Currently, the “Ultimate Collection” album is not available on iTunes in the U.S., but “The Greatest Hits” album is currently the best-selling album on sale for $14.99. The rest of her albums cost $9.99.