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Sony Music under fire after the cost of hits that appear in iTunes increases by more than 60% after the singer's death

Sony Music has been criticized after increasing the price of an album by Whitney Houston on the hour from the iTunes Store, after the singer was found dead.

The music giant is understood to have increased the wholesale price of the largest in the album Greatest Hits Houston The Ultimate Collection, at 4 am California time on Sunday. This means that the retail price of iTunes albums automatically increased from £ 4.99 to £ 7.99.

Houston The Ultimate Collection, originally released in 1997, was the best selling album on iTunes seconds Monday morning. On Apple returned the disk to its original price of the Sunday night.

Music fans described the move as a cynical attempt to capitalize on the demand of increasingly successful record in Houston. The rise in prices came as tributes flooded the singer, whose catalog includes hits like I Wanna Dance With Somebody and I Will Always Love You. Houston was found dead in his hotel room in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon, local time, at the age of 48 years.

A source close to the situation said the price increase was not a "cynical" movement - but that the wholesale price of Houston The Ultimate Collection was wrong. The change in the wholesale price has increased the selling price of the album on iTunes.