Now remember that I am hardly staff when I say this, but I think what happened is that they vastly underestimated the draw-power of having a physical album. Perhaps they saw $50 as a pricepoint that would allow them to recoup costs without being too outrageous.
Obviously six hundred some odd people didn't think it was too outrageous.
Perhaps though, in hindsight, the staff will fully agree that $20 would more than sufficiently cover multiple copies for future distribution.