Sony Says Price of Whitney Albums Raised By Mistake
A mistake, not an attempt to cash in.
The world was stunned when it emerged that Whitney Houston had died suddenly on Saturday afternoon. Loved by many, it's no surprise that fans shocked by her death flocked to purchase the star's material. However, fans in the UK soon noticed that a couple of her albums were more expensive than they should have been.
Early on Sunday, the price of one Whitney Houston album, "The Ultimate Collection," jumped 60-percent on iTunes UK. This pushed the price up from £4.99 to £7.99 (or from $7.85 to approximately $12.50). A second compilation album, "The Greatest Hits," rose from £7.99 to £9.99 ($12.50 to $15.75). The price changes sparked accusations that someone was trying to cash in on the singers untimely passing. However, as speculation spread, Houston's record label Sony remained tight-lipped on the issue, leaving people uncertain about who to blame for the price hike.
Yesterday afternoon, the New York Times received a statement from Sony admitting that the prices had been changed on Sunday, but claimed that it was an accident.
"Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mispriced on the U.K. iTunes store on Sunday," NYT quotes the company as saying. "When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologize for any offense caused."
The newspaper cites two Sony Music execs that say the mistake was the fault of one British employee and that the company gave no order to raise the price of Houston's albums.
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Yeah.... suuuure.... "Accident..."
Yeah..... suuuuure... "Accident..."
Are they going to refund the difference for all those who paid the "accidental" price?
What about all the money they basically stole? Ironically speaking, Sony is in for a nice ride the next few years. Good luck and take as much as you can now!
Price gouging by Sony? Surely not.
Sony: Let's raise the price and hope that nobody realizes it. Afterall, they're all sheeps.
Public: WTF!?!?!
Sony: Sorry, it was just a mistake.
If caught red handed, blame a random British employee. Real classy Sony.
Can you imagine trying to use their excuses in your daily life?
Officer: "Why were you going 85 in a 60 zone?"
You: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee"
Wife: Why are you home so late, smelling of booze and woman's perfume?"
You: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee"
AA leader:"Why do you think you started drinking and what lead you to it becoming problem?"
You: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee "
If it works for Sony, why not?
I don't believe them.
Sony: Let's raise the price and hope that nobody realizes it. Afterall, they're all sheeps.Public: WTF!?!?!Sony: Sorry, it was just a mistake.
Sony: Let's raise the price and hope that nobody realizes it. Afterall, they're all sheeps.Public: WTF!?!?!Sony: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee "
Fixed it for ya......
If caught red handed, blame a random British employee. Real classy Sony.Can you imagine trying to use their excuses in your daily life? Officer: "Why were you going 85 in a 60 zone?"You: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee"Wife: Why are you home so late, smelling of booze and woman's perfume?"You: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee"AA leader:"Why do you think you started drinking and what lead you to it becoming problem?"You: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee "If it works for Sony, why not?
Permission to use that line the next time I oversleep and am late for work?
I could see one guy in Britain going "Hey, Whitney just died. Her shit will sell like crazy now, lets raise the prices on her stuff." Sadly people are like that...
If caught red handed, blame a random British employee. Real classy Sony.Can you imagine trying to use their excuses in your daily life? Officer: "Why were you going 85 in a 60 zone?"You: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee"Wife: Why are you home so late, smelling of booze and woman's perfume?"You: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee"AA leader:"Why do you think you started drinking and what lead you to it becoming problem?"You: "The mistake was the fault of one British employee "If it works for Sony, why not?
well lets look at it in a more realistic aspect.
if you are the head of a multinational conglomerate, do you oversee EVERY move the company makes, or find people who can make those decisions for you?
you find people.
and generally these people are in charge of various regions. and look, most of europe is its own region.
not saying that its right or wrong, but that's most likely how it played out.
Get Sony a bucket of water because their pants are on fire.
Sony, you aren't Apple, you can't price gouge people just because they are apple sheep on iTunes
"The newspaper cites two Sony Music execs that say the mistake was the fault of one British employee and that the company gave no order to raise the price of Houston's albums."
After the British employee left Sony executive offices for being reprimanded he went out and was able to buy a new house and car and was suspended for 1 yr with full pay
That's what they called "Marketing Stragedy".
Why do people rush out to buy cd's of recently deceased artists? If you're not a fan, you wouldn't want to buy it anyways. If you're already a fan, you probably own all their albums.
Sony profiteering from corpses if need be, what a bunch of nice human beings they are. Accident yeah right!
how does a mistake like that EVEN HAPPEN?
fucking bullshit sony. i hope your next 100 products fail to compete. i hate greedy companies.
"The mistake was the fault of one British employee "
Actually that excuse has gotten me out of many jams.
BTW doesn't Apple have a patent on that excuse.
yeah, the mistake was the British employee only raised prices on 2 albums. He was supposed to raise prices on all WH albums.
Acccidental greed overdose.
2 words:
yeah right
I don't think any excuse would be believable in these circumstances, just too much of a coincidence.
I hope customers who bought the albums get the difference refunded. Either way, a PR disaster for Sony so any profits made are probably dwindled by the damage.
Blaming one of your employees is a really lame excuse - everything a company does, ever, is a result of an employee decision - it doesn't make it OK.
Sony can suck it
Somewhere at Sony HQ there is a very tighly organised "accident" department with a big red button used to automatically enhance the price of albums on a select number of artists that have drug problems and are circling the toilet bowl
...
Couple of years ago Britney was on the books but has dropped away recently, Pete Doherty is currently number one, guaranteed that when he ODs and chokes on his own vomit in a few months all the albums by The Libertines will "accidentally" go up 30% due to a "mistake" by a random "British employee"
You Lie.
Obviously, they expected demand to rise, and raised prices accordingly.
They own Houston's tracks, not her.
It wasn't a mistake, they were well within their rights to raise the price, but they have to take the flame if they get caught.
And the Music Industry is wondering why abused customers turn on them and look for free downloads...
Fudge Sony
If you ever worked on a system which includes products/services and so on, you know that there need to be at least 100 signatures under that "accident"... Sure, keep blaming a SINGLE person... How stupid Sony thinks people are???
So all of you Tom's Hware readers don't care much for Sony? [Yeah i figured that out all by myself] Hey the prices they were selling this stuff for [after inflation of course] was still a good deal. Go down to Best Buy or Wal Mart [I know another TH favorite] and try to buy these cd' for that price. OK well I don't care for them either. Sheep will always be sheep.