Sony apologises for Whitney album price hike

Music company Sony has apologised for raising the price of Whitney Houston’s albums within hours of the singer’s death.

Two of her best-of collections ended up with a price hike of around €3.60 for download versions being sold on the iTunes store.

The move was met by an angry backlash from outraged fans.

The music label has now apologised for what it says was a “mistake” on its part.

With a lack of physical stock in high street stores due to her sudden death, many fans have had little choice but to buy online.

She is expected to storm back into the charts this weekend with around 27 individual tracks due in the top 200 singles. And one of the two affected albums — Greatest Hits — is in line to go to number six when the charts are announced on Sunday.

A Sony statement said: “Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mispriced on the iTunes store on Sunday. When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologise for any offence caused.”

The price hike is thought to have only affected the British iTunes store at 4am on Sunday — less than 12 hours after news broke of the star’s death.

Meanwhile a “devastated” British fan set her house on fire in a candle-lit vigil for the star.

Anne Lomax had been saying prayers then lit a candle in Houston’s memory before going to bed.

But the curtains then caught fire from a candle flame and the blaze quickly spread. Lomax, 53, was woken by her smoke alarms. managed to escape unscathed along with her three dogs while firemen put out the blaze.

But the living room of her semi-detached house, in Hodge Clough Road, Oldham, Greater Manchester, was destroyed.