Microsoft has apologized for a tweet that encouraged fans of deceased artist Amy Winehouse to buy one of her albums from the Zune Marketplace. The tweet, which stated, "remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking 'Back to Black' over at Zune," was immediately met with a backlash from fans, who called it crass and vile.
"Talk about cashing in on someone's death!" a response from Simacco read. Soon after, an apology was posted by the account. "Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse download tweet seemed purely commercially motivated," it read. "Far from the case we assure you."
A further tweet posted later declared that the world had lost a huge talent, and that, "our thoughts and prayers are with Amy's family and friends at this very sad time."
Of course, we all expect to see Amy Winehouse' albums being pushed more aggressively now by music retailers, as is the case when there is any death of a star within the music industry. The tweet though, did seem distasteful, badly timed and exploitative of the situation.
Written by: James Delahunty @ 27 Jul 2011 15:12
