First, I’ll start off by saying this: earlier this morning Sony Music apologized for raising the prices of Whitney Houston’s music on UK iTunes, a day after the legendary singer died.
That’s a start.
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In a statement, the music company took responsibility, but claimed the mishap wasn’t an act based out of greed, but rather error:
“Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mispriced on the UK iTunes store on Sunday. When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologize for any offense caused.”
The “mistake,” which only affected fans who lived in Britain, happened with two titles: The Ultimate Collection, which went from £4.99 to £7.99 and Whitney: The Greatest Hits, which went from £7.99 to £9.99. The price hike lasted for a majority of Sunday.
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This reeks badly to me.
I’m sorry, Sony, but there’s no way I’m buying that this was some kind of low-level-employee mistake.
Nope. I firmly believe that this was Sony’s way of exploiting and cashing in on the death of a human being.
What makes me even more skeptical is the fact that the two albums that increased in price were both greatest hits collections. Generally speaking, those albums usually sell the best for a freshly deceased artist, because they contain sort of a garbage-plate of a singer’s best songs throughout his or her career.
But, this is only one man’s opinion, and maybe you disagree and don’t think as cynically as I do. Maybe you’re not like me, and you don’t think that the company is covering their greedy asses by saying it was a mistake.
That’s fine. But you should, however, agree with what I say next. Sony, if you really want to make some kind of gesture, don’t just apologize (even though that’s a start).
Show some action: give out a refund to the British Whitney fans who spent the extra money. Hell, if you want to be extra sympathetic, give those fans a full refund.
It’s only right, and the only way, for me at least, you can wash the stench of profiting off Whitney’s death off of your company.
