The Price You Pay.

     Earlier this week, I blogged about a new Bruce Springsteen greatest-hits collection to be sold exclusively through Wal-Mart. This shotgun marriage between a guy who heretofore connected with Main Street, blue collars and union dues and the corporate  bullies from Bentonville screams, "Sell Out!" to me.

     I was reading the Wall Street Journal this morning, and in an article about Springsteen's promotion for his real new record, Working on a Dream, there was this passage that  might explain the Boss's rationale:

Record labels and artists, including the Eagles, AC/DC and Guns N' Roses, have increasingly embraced exclusive deals with major retailers, particularly Wal-Mart, as a low-risk way to sell huge numbers of CDs. That's because in such exclusive deals, the retailers generally agree not to return unsold product, which can be a major cost for record labels.

In Mr. Springsteen's case, the impetus for the new, 12-song greatest-hits collection was even more specific, according to people involved. First, priced at just $10 and sold only at Wal-Mart, it was designed as an inexpensive proposition that would appeal to some of the 125 million people expected to tune in to at least part of the Super Bowl.

Second, thanks to an unusual provision in his record contract, the new collection could help Sony Music defray some of the multimillion-dollar advance payment it made to Mr. Springsteen for "Working on a Dream." Mr. Springsteen's seven-album, $110 million deal was so rich that it contributed to the downfall of Andrew Lack, who lost his job as chief executive of what was then known as Sony BMG Music Entertainment shortly after it was signed in 2005.

Despite the deal's cost, it did contain some financial protection for Sony. Typically, a record company would be able to recoup an album-advance payment only out of sales of the new album in question, not older ones. But Mr. Springsteen's deal allows Sony to recoup its investment in each new album out of sales of older material. That gives Sony a motivation to come up with new packages of old material, such as the new greatest-hits collection. People familiar with the matter say that Mr. Springsteen and his manager, Jon Landau, have been cooperative in such initiatives.

A spokeswoman for Sony's Columbia Records label said the company doesn't comment on artists' contracts. Through a spokeswoman, Messrs. Landau and Springsteen declined to comment.

     Sorry, Bruce, but I still don't get it. You made a deal with a shitty corporate citizen to help bail out your billion-dollar record label. The ghost of Tom Joad is scratching his head, too.