Amazon.com has made its name — and destroyed its competition — via relentlessly cutthroat discounting, but yesterday it cut its own throat by accident: As a story by Paul Revoir in the Daily Mail reports, for about four hours Amazon.co.uk was selling music downloads from Lily Allen, Bruce Springsteen, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Metallica and others that typically go for as much as £7.99 ($13) for a mere 29p (47¢).

As a result, the site was “blitzed” by shoppers, reports Revoir, especially after consumer websites started spreading the word. For example, Hot UK Deals reported that “Amazon appear to have gone crazy,” and the T3 site posted notice saying, “Amazon is selling a load of full albums on its MP3 store at a fraction of their normal cost in what looks distinctly like a major pricing cock-up.”

Also as a result, bands whose music was discounted saw their music shooting up Amazon’s bestseller charts.

Amazon later explained, “With the millions of items on our website, pricing errors can occur.”