Immediately After Pop Legend Whitney Houston Died, Sony Jacked up the Price of Her Music on iTunes

When Whitney Houston tragically died last week, millions mourned. Triggering an earthquake of buzz across social media, Whitney's passing dominated Twitter's trending topic globally for days. But Sony didn't have time to shed tears—there was money to be made.

Within just an half an hour of Whitney's death going public, Sony Music upped the price of her 2007 album Ultimate Collection in the U.K. from £4.99 to £7.99 (about $8 Canadian to nearly $13) on Apple's iTunes store, according to Digital Spy. While the prices didn't seem to spike in North America—that album is $9.99 in Canada and U.S. digital stores—consumers were outraged, but not surprised, that a music label would exploit the death of an artist to maximize profits.

Whitney's music has, of course, regained popularity since her passing. Her most famous single, "I Will Always Love You," skyrocketed to number one on iTunes, and remains there despite a resurgence in Adele downloads following her Grammys sweep yesterday. Whitney also has two albums in the top three for overall album downloads.