“The Boss” Denounces His Deal with Wal-Mart
by February 9, 2009 12:00 am 65 views
Well, that didn’t take long.
In our Jan. 12 Whispers, we told you about an exclusive greatest hits collection from Bruce Springsteen to be released through Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
It seemed like a good move. After all, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” exclusive through Wal-Mart sold more than 4 million copies in 2008, putting the band No. 2 on the year’s charts behind country songbird Taylor Swift.
We wondered, given the histrionics that usually characterize Wal-Mart’s many critics, how much heat Springsteen would take.
Two weeks later, in the Jan. 28 New York Times, Springsteen said his people “dropped the ball” with the Wal-Mart release, adding it was a “mistake” and “given its labor history, if we’d thought about it a little longer, we’d have done something different.”
Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau, defended the release, noting that “The Boss” sells 15 percent of his albums through the Bentonville retailer’s stores.
That figures out to around 150,000 albums for his last release, 2007’s ‘Magic,’ and we’re guessing the working man Springsteen has made hundreds of millions of dollars lauding saved a couple bucks buying it at Wal-Mart.
For its part, Wal-Mart is taking the high road.
“Millions of Springsteen fans have counted on Wal-Mart over the years to deliver his music into their lives, and we will continue to offer those fans his compilations such as his ‘Greatest Hits’ exclusive and other works at unbeatable prices,” said spokesperson Melissa O’Brien.