Sony Music has come under fire after it increased the price of a Whitney Houston album on Apple's iTunes Store hours after the singer was found dead. 
 
 The music giant is understood to have lifted the wholesale price of Houston's greatest hits album, The Ultimate Collection, at about 4am California time on Sunday. This meant that the iTunes retail price of the album automatically increased from £4.99 to £7.99. 
 
 Houston's The Ultimate Collection, originally released in 1997, was the second top-selling album on iTunes on Monday morning. Apple returned the album to its original price late on Sunday. 
 
 Music fans described the move as a cynical attempt to capitalise on Houston's in-demand greatest hits records. The price hike came as tributes flooded in for the singer, whose catalogue includes hits such as I Wanna Dance With Somebody and I Will Always Love You. Houston was found dead in her Los Angeles hotel room on Saturday afternoon, local time, at the age of 48. 
 
 The change happened when Sony Music, which owns the rights to much of Houston's back catalogue, increased the wholesale price of The Ultimate Collection. This automatically boosted the retail price of the popular album, although Apple is responsible setting the price paid by music fans. 
 
 It is understood that the change occurred after Sony Music reviewed Houston's iTunes catalogue after the singer was pronounced dead. 
 
 One insider close to the situation said the price hike was not a "cynical" move – but that the wholesale price of Houston's The Ultimate Collection was wrong. The change in wholesale price boosted the album's retail price on iTunes. 
 
 Houston's The Ultimate Collection and Whitney – The Greatest Hits were in the top three albums on iTunes at noon on Monday. 
 
 Apple and Sony Music declined to comment. ||||| Sales of pop icon Whitney Houston's records have soared since it was announced that the singer was found dead in a bathtub at Los Angeles' Beverly Hilton Hotel. 
 
 Seven of Houston's records are currently in the top 10 on Amazon.com's best sellers in music list, and the legendary singer who died at the age of 48 was only edged out of the top spot by singer Adele, who took home six Grammy awards Sunday night. Houston's compilation "Whitney Houston - The Greatest Hits" comes in at number two. 
 
 Fans instantly drove Houston to number one the iTunes charts as well, with her cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" shooting to the top of the site's charts and becoming the number one download. Her 1980s classic "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" is also in the top 10, and a number of the singer's other singles quickly re-entered the iTunes top 100. 
 
 Apple has been accused of cashing in on Houston's unexpected death by hiking the price of the download since the news of her death broke. Houston's 2007 Ultimate Collection increased by £3 to £7.99 in the space of just 30 minutes, according to the website Digital Spy. 
 
 It is expected that mourning fans will keep the singer's albums and singles at the top of the charts over the next few weeks.
– On Saturday, a Whitney Houston greatest-hits album cost about $8 in the UK iTunes store; but shortly after the singer was found dead, it had jumped to a little more than $12.50. The changed sparked a customer uproar. "It is just a case of iTunes cashing in on the singer's death, which in my opinion is totally parasitic," said one, according to DigitalSpy. But the Guardian reports that it was Sony, not iTunes, that was responsible for the change—which has now been reversed. Sony boosted the wholesale price of Houston's 1997 Ultimate Collection, which iTunes currently says isn't available in its US store. It was the second-bestselling album as of this morning, the Guardian notes. Sony's change wasn't "cynical," said an insider: Sony reviewed Houston's catalog after her death, and found that the wholesale price was simply wrong. Regardless of the controversy, Houston's sales are soaring since her death, ABC News notes, with seven of her records in Amazon's music top 10. (Click to read about an eerie twist in Houston's death, involving her daughter.)