Sony Says Raising Prices On Whitney Houston Music Was A 'Mistake'
from the ya-think? dept
Following the news that Sony Music raised prices on Whitney Houston's music very, very soon after news broke that she passed away, the company has now said that it was a "mistake" and issued an apology:"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."Of course, that seems to raise more questions than it answers. What kind of "mistake"? Human error? Did someone just accidentally jack up the price? Or was it someone doing it on purpose... and Sony now thinks that his or her decision to do so was the mistake?
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Filed Under: death, music, prices, whitney houston
Companies: sony music
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In other news, this weekend's UK music charts look set to be a little boring: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/14/whitney-houston-death-singles-charts
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Poor deluded Sony, still not aware people watch their every move waiting for the next disaster.
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Re:
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The Register
They prefer uncommentable articles about how we need to shoot all pirates or at very least hang them as they are starving the Sony's of this world of their god given right to squeeze until there is nothing left.
Question is will they refund those that paid the higher price?
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The mistake was that they got caught
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Which would make the act of raising the price of that crap even more unethical, because it was going to show that the label was going all out to recoup what they "lost" financing a has been singer that couldn't write her own songs, was a diva, drug addict that had no self control/respect.
I wouldn't be shocked to learn that she died of overdose and the label paid for it.
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Re: The Register
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Gee
' Gee guys, shes dead , jack the price up quick '
Don't you just love em ! ?
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Here's a fun thought excersize
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Re: The mistake was that they got caught
Oh well this rocker hasn't done anything for a while...
Quick slam him into rehab for 10 days, announce a studio time, and then drop off the regular suitcase of party favors.
We'll make a mint!
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Re: Here's a fun thought exercise
Indeed, as copyright is extended and extended, the pool of content created by artists who are no longer with us will be bigger than the pool created by the living. If they ever get their act together and use technology to take advantage of "The Long Tail" like Amazon has... the content industry will undoubtedly make more off of the dead than the living.
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Leave Sony alone!!!
How is she going to support herself? They were only thinking of the artist..er wait a minute.
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Re: Leave Sony alone!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc
I'm sorry.
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Re: Leave Sony alone!!!
Its only after Judgment day that they can finally be recouped.
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Re:
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Apple's desire to make $ on Whitney's death.
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Re:
Boycott MAFIAA !
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Re: Apple's desire to make $ on Whitney's death.
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Re:
After more than a decade of faulty batteries, installing rootkits on computers (then providing dialers to "fix" the rootkits), removing functionality from their consoles (then attacking their customers for trying to reenable the functionality the beleive they paid for), setting up fake "fansites" for their products, among a list of "missteps", Sony proves yet again what a "classy" business they are these days.
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Re: Here's a fun thought excersize
You know the old joke:
What's the difference between a lawyer and a leech?
A leech stops feeding off you once you're dead...
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Re: The Register
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Much of the older, back catalog stuff is in permanent discount, such that the wholesale price is reduced to try to encourage a little demand for it, allowing retailers to "sell it for less". It's just up from the bargain bin, if you like.
Then Whitney drops dead, sales instantly pick up (and they did), and the system goes "run on this stuff, pull off the discounts". That removal of discount gets transmitted back to the retailers, who in turn move the album up from one price point to another.
Automation... it's deadly at times.
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Mistake
No harm no foul... right?
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Re: Re: Leave Sony alone!!!
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All scammers know if you're going to make money off of tragedy, timing is everything
The particular 1997 album, The Ultimate Collection, was priced at �4.99 (or approximately $8) in the Apple iTunes Store before Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m Pacific time from unspecified causes. At roughly 4 a.m. the following day, the price bumped up to �7.99 (or approximately $12.60), leaving millions of fans who wanted to commemorate her death scrutinizing the music giants for attempting to profit off this global tragedy.
�The album itself is great so please don�t be put off purchasing it, just that you will merely be lining some fatcat�s pocket before Whitney�s lifeless body is cold,� a customer warned on the UK entertainment site DigitalSpy.
But was it all just an interestingly-timed accident? Apparently, when news of the singer�s death broke, Sony Music, which owns the rights many of Houston�s back catalog, was prompted to review its catalog of Houston�s albums. There, it realized its wholesale price of The Ultimate Collection had been incorrect in the first place. During this price change, the digital album became entirely unavailable for download for several hours, and when it came back online, the retail price had increased by more than 60 percent. However, since Apple technically has the responsibility of setting the selling price on the iTunes Store, fans are unsure of who to blame for this seemingly exploitative move.
Message to Sony and Apple from your customers: No matter how sorry you might claim to be, bad decisions will turn you into bad press magnets, and will not bring you profit.
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No more need be said.
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Yes, but...
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Even when a "mistake" at iTunes, when DRM was removed, was to set 3 tiered pricing and forgot to include the $0.69 option, it affected a variety of albums, not just a specific artist.
It's unfortunate, as I truly did enjoy Sony years ago, but it's things like this why my house now contains zero products from Sony.
Then again, what company doesn't pull this crap anymore.
Great article on Cracked today.
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Re:
Pinky and The Brain Intro
Pinky: Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!
They're Pinky and The Brain
Yes, Pinky and The Brain
One is a genius
The other's insane.
They're laboratory mice
Their genes have been spliced
They're dinky
They're Pinky and The Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain
Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain
Brain.
Before each night is done
Their plan will be unfurled
By the dawning of the sun
They'll take over the world.
They're Pinky and The Brain
Yes, Pinky and The Brain
Their twilight campaign
Is easy to explain.
To prove their mousey worth
They'll overthrow the Earth
They're dinky
They're Pinky and The Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain
Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain
Narf!
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Re:
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Spin
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Re: Gee
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Re: Mistake
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Re: Spin
And now, a reading from the book of Stealer's Wheel, circa 1973:
Got to get back to the telephone,
Make some money from a complete unknown.
I know everything that I've got to say,
I know 'cause I'm a good businessman.
I can make you rich, I can make you a name,
Promise you the world if you'll play my game.
If you don't want to play it, don't bother me.
That's why I'm a good businessman.
A good businessman, a good businessman,
A good businessman, a good businessman.
If I find that you ain't got no trust in me,
Then it's time to use my psychology.
I can change your mind, I can turn you around,
I know 'cause I'm a good businessman.
Let me tell you now, I don't need your respect,
Seems to me there's one thing that you forget:
I ain't in this business to be friends with you,
That's why I'm a good businessman.
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The worst type of apology
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If this be the case, the company is left with little choice but to engage in damage control, and then spend some quality "bonding time" with the person who created the mess in the first place.
I am not suggesting this is what happened, but I have seen it take place so many, many times that it may well be a logical explanation concerning this situation.
Hence, I would not be so quick to lay the blame at the feet of the company. The more important issue is how does the company respond to damage control and, if inside information can be secured, what happened to the individual with the "bright idea" that wasn't. I would like to think that if an idividual pulled this stunt, the the "quality bonding" time would be accompanied with a suggestion that he/her might wish to consider other career opportunites elsewhere. Lawn maintenance, of even Jiffy Lube, quickly comes to mind
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Re: Re: Spin
This song perfectly includes all the standard lines (lies) the big execs tell all their artists, just before they are robbed blind.
Pink Floyd - Have A Cigar
Come in here, Dear boy, have a cigar.
You're gonna go far,
You're gonna fly high,
You're never gonna die,
You're gonna make it, if you try;
They're gonna love you.
Well I've always had a deep respect,
And I mean that most sincerely.
The band is just fantastic,
that is really what I think.
Oh by the way, which one's Pink?
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?
We call it Riding the Gravy Train.
We're just knocked out.
We heard about the sell-out.
You gotta get an album out.
You owe it to the people.
We're so happy we can hardly count.
Everybody else is just green,
Have you seen the chart?
It's a helluva start,
It could be made into a monster
If we all pull together as a team.
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?
We call it Riding the Gravy Train.
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Re: Re:
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Re:
Right, on just that one album. That album had its own special currency conversion, and every other album was done correctly. Nice try.
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Re:
No! That is exactly what they want, to throw some employee under the bus and get off scot free. Corporations need to be held responsible for the actions of their employees.
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Accident my butt
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NYTimes reports "human error"
According to two executives at Sony Music, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, the price increase was the result of an error by a Sony employee in Britain, and that the company gave no orders for prices to be raised on Ms. Houston�s music.
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Re: Re:
BTW, individual screw-ups are not limited to customers. If you work within a company think about how many times you have seen employees screwed by someone more interested in their advancement than the interests of the employees, all in the name of making a few pennies that cost dollars in terms of goodwill and employee morale.
Senior execs bemoan the fact that people with milliradian FOVs lose sight of the big picture.
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Re: Re: Re:
Not because it wasn't part of their plan all along... to take over the world... Muhahahaha!
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Re: NYTimes reports "human error"
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Re: Yes, but...
I for one can't wait to hear Whitney's new albums that copyright allows her to continue to make, now that she is gone and has more incentive to create. /sarc
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
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Couldn't it be . . .
Perhaps it was as easy as that. Doesn't change the awkwardness of having the price go up within hours of the artist's untimely demise (though, with Houston, she was probably overdue), but doesn't make it as callous and insensitive as it is being portrayed by the vast majority here.
But, I guesss it's more satisfying to assume the label is a hearse-chaser....
HM
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Re:
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Re: Re: NYTimes reports "human error"
Billboard talked to someone from inside Sony on background who explained the price increase lasted for just a few hours and was due to "employee error."
This sounds like the mistake was made by some low-level clerk who keyed in the wrong number. Music industry insiders told me that they such a scenario could have occurred.
Indeed, that's not what happened. According to sources close to the situation, "the mistake" was made by a Sony Music middle manager who had the authority to change prices.
Maybe Sony should put HAL9000 in charge of pricing, then they'll be no possibility of "human error", unless they give HAL9000 conflicting orders and it kills everyone to keep the corporate bottom line price structure profitable over human life.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Taking over the world doesn't seem to far fetched now.
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There're ways around every law.
Yellow Pages: The Musical!
Available this Tuesday on DVD and Bluray, exclusively at Walmart!
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Re: Re: Re:
A nice try - an attempt to broadly imply that there were many other albums that changed price as well as a sweep at implying that you are familiar with the UK ITunes site and know what you're talking about. Except that even after the sweeping implication, the sarcasm and the pointless ad-homenim attack I still spotted, as I'm sure did many others, that you offered not one shred of corroboration. Also, since I bothered to read the link to the apology article, I find that:
and
You'd have thought they'd have mentioned a good excuse like a faulty exchange rate affecting multiple items and not just those two at that point wouldn't you?
So I'm afraid your exchange rate "explanation" looks a little thin.
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Re: Re: Re: NYTimes reports "human error"
http://i.imgur.com/qPAq4.jpg
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Re: Re: Gee
That said, they raised the price in the UK, lowered it and are now apologizing. Probably with the same genuine tone of voice from the PR guy as he typed it and snickered.
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Re: Couldn't it be . . .
I'm unclear to me how that would be less of a rip-off, though as you say somewhat less emotive. I'd also expect in that case to see an awful lot of planted stories to get people talking about somewhat forgotten artists as an excuse to jack the prices up, but perhaps that's just me being cynical.
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The Music Industry Is Reverting to Type.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091210/0529417288.shtml#c431
If one looks back before the industrial revolution, there were big concert halls, but they catered to an upper/middle class audience.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111229/16024817230/us-box-office-revenue-finally-dro ps-not-because-infringement.shtml#c1079
But these did not cater to the working class. Music for the working classes was provided by street musicians, who, in the nature of things, could not be famous. There is the famous Gustave Dore print, circa 1860, of a bunch of little girls, dancing around in a circle, barefooted, in a London slum street, to the accompaniment of an organ-grinder, with a monkey on his shoulder. Working-class life in general was lived in the streets. The remote ancestor of McDonalds was a man selling baked potatoes from a little oven built into a handcart, which he dragged around with him. Under the circumstances, it was very difficult for a working-class person to possess celebrity. Working-class life was relentlessly driven down to the human scale.
There was one big exception-- public execution. In the eighteenth century, the city of London might have hanged about a hundred people a year, some every few weeks, before an audience of thousands. Public executions were a popular entertainment on a large scale, with all the usual side businesses of a modern football game, such as selling food, drink, seating, and souvenirs to the audience. The condemned persons were taken in procession for a mile or so, from the prison to the gallows, and on this journey, they had their fifteen minutes of fame, or probably, more like an hour or two. The prisoners were given enough drink to be more or less drunk, and depending on their natures, they put on some kind of performance. The London Hanged were the ancestral rock stars. In the 1780's, due to concerns about public order during the procession through the streets, the performance was scaled back. This was shortly after the Gordon Riots of 1780, in which a political march had become an outbreak of mass arson and looting (*). A new gallows was build on a porch adjoining London's main prison, the Old Bailey, and this had the effect of scaling the performance back to a few minutes. Finally, in the 1860's and 1870's, executions were moved out of public view. That was about the time that the first phonographs began to make it possible for individual musicians to be famous. The classic literary representation of public execution was the Newgate Calendar.
http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ngintro.htm
(*) The Gordon Riots were at one level a working class phenomena, but the leader was a duke's son, Lord George Gordon. The urban working class was not yet capable of generating its own natural leaders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Riots
The recording industry is dependent on fame, not on music. When the recording industry comes under sufficient economic strain, with the collapse of the mass-market for sound recordings made by famous artists, it will tend to revert to its roots. We can see the beginnings of this when the fact of a rock star's overdose or suicide, or whatever, leads to a surge in sales.
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Re: Couldn't it be . . .
It is more satisfying to assume the label was hearse chasing, that's true, but in this case it does appear that it was one middle manager who had the authority to do such things.
The spike in demand for her work will continue for a while yet so it does appear tasteless at best and "hearse chasing" at worst.
Sony's being judged on their past record here and their contempt for their customers (consumers) not simply this incident. Perhaps that's unfair but Sony paved this road and now their riding it.
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Re: Re: Re:
Right, and I'm saying that's appropriate, and I'm arguing against the idea of not blaming Sony. We should absolutely blame Sony. Whether it was one low-level employee messing up or all the top executives doesn't matter. Sony messed up, and the company is rightly being blamed for it.
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The sony has the novel and movie albums WH hands.
Who benefits from her death?
Who is winning big with the death of Michael Jackson?
Sony
Sony kills the music, it was this phrase that MJ exhibited to his fan club in London.
The sony is desperate to for profit, as it is on his knees before the advances of which she does not participate, only accumulated losses due to their incompetence.
The sony is killing artists to steal your work.
The death of Michael Jackson is generating an extraordinary profit to sony, and Whitney Houston, with his death, the cashier will fill them.
Eager for profit, are worse than vultures, because they do not expect the "carrion" cool.
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Re: Re: Re: Gee
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chaka-kahn-slams-clive-davis-for-holding-pre-grammy-gala-on ly-hours-after-whitney-houstons-death/
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Price Fixing Anyone?
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Give 'em a break
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Re: Re: Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Gee
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Re: Price Fixing Anyone?
Not really. It's perfectly plausible that all the online retailers automatically adjust their retail prices in response to a move by Sony. As long as they're not colluding with the retailers, it isn't price fixing.
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algorithms shaping our world...
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supply demand
It is a free market. The seller simply tries to maximize profit, which is exactly what they should be doing. If you (the buyer) are uncomfortable with the price, you can: 1. wait for price to come back down as demand dies, or 2. download the free version.
If I was Sony I would have left the price high and said, "Yes, we jacked up the price because of higher demand. As a company we always try to maximize profit."
By trying to claim it was a mistake now, Sony has lost even more of my respect.
And Bill Clinton should have said, "Yes, I had consensual sex in the oval office."
Why do public officials and companies always lie when confronted with something everyone knows that they did and that isn't even close to as bad as the subsequent lying about it?
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Re: supply demand
But Microsoft Office Clippy didn't offer that option.
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