March 31, 2008:

U2 to Join Live Nation Artists LOS ANGELES, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Live Nation President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Rapino announced today that the company has reached an agreement in principle to enter into a 12-year global contractual relationship with U2, who will join the company's Live Nation Artists roster. "U2 has created some of the greatest rock music of all time and their career has been uniquely successful," said Michael Cohl, Chairman of the Board of Live Nation and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Artists. "It has long been our intention to consolidate and extend our relationship with U2, so this is a very exciting deal for us. The band has always been forward thinking and as one of our original and most successful artists, we are delighted to be able to work with them for many years into the future." Acknowledged as one of the best live acts in the world, U2 has played to millions around the world on their ground-breaking tours. Their eleven studio albums have garnered 22 Grammy Awards and sold in excess of 140 million copies globally. Through this new association U2 and Live Nation Artists will collaborate on a variety of the band's global music enterprises including touring, merchandising, and the band's website, U2.com. "We've been dating for over 20 years now, it's about time we tied the knot," said U2's Bono. "With regards to U2.com, we feel we've got a great website, but we want to make it a lot better. We want a closer, more direct relationship between the band and its audience and Live Nation has pledged to help us with that." Arthur Fogel, Chairman of Live Nation's Global Music Division and Chief Executive Officer of Global Touring, who has produced every U2 tour since PopMart in 1997, said, "Our long relationship with U2 has endured and flourished over the years. This is an opportunity to move forward with them while building on the past, utilizing our unparalleled global marketing platform to expand U2's universe into the future." Paul McGuinness, U2's Manager said, "U2 are doing their best work right now, on record and in concert. The opportunity to integrate U2 and Live Nation's vision of the future is a great extension of our established business and of our working relationship with Arthur Fogel and Michael Cohl, which started back in 1980 at the El Mocambo in Toronto." By expanding the scope of its activities with touring artists, Live Nation Artists unlocks value to increase economic benefits to artists through the creation of innovative new products, and delivery and distribution channels for music and other content. Operating within this new model, Live Nation Artists serves more than 1,000 artists through its array of services, including global touring, merchandise and licensing (Signatures Network, Anthill, TRUNK, Ltd.), sponsorship and strategic alliances, recorded music, studios, media rights, digital rights, fan club/websites (UltraStar, Musictoday), marketing and creative services (Tour Design) to facilitate direct artist to fan connection. U2's longstanding relationship with Universal Music for recording and also publishing is not affected by the Live Nation deal. The deal is subject to the completion of documentation and is expected to be finalized in the coming months. ABOUT LIVE NATION: Live Nation is the future of the music business. With the most live concerts, music venues and festivals in the world and the most comprehensive concert search engine on the web, Live Nation is revolutionizing the music industry: onstage and online. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Live Nation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol "LYV." Additional information about the company can be found at www.kivenation.com under the "About Us" section. source: prnewswire

UPDATE: Live Nation Signs Concert-promotion Deal With U2 SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Live Nation Inc. has reached a 12-year deal with U2 that gives the U.S. concert promoter exclusive rights to produce the Irish rock band's concerts, manufacture and sell its merchandise, license its image and run its Web site and online fan club, according to a media report Sunday. Terms of the U2 agreement weren't disclosed, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition. The U2 arrangement, which follows an even broader 10-year deal with Madonna, would guarantee desirable inventory for the new ticketing service, set to launch at the beginning of 2009, the Journal said. Live Nation (LYV), the world's largest concert promoter by revenue, has said it is parting ways with IAC/Interactive Corp.'s (IACID) Ticketmaster, the biggest ticket seller, when their partnership ends at the end of this year, Live Nation plans to launch a competing ticket service to sell seats to its own concerts as well as events staged by others, the Journal said. Unlike Live Nation's $120 million deal with Madonna, the U2 agreement, which is to be finalized soon, doesn't cover distribution of recorded music or music publishing, according to the report. For the same rights Live Nation is getting from U2, the promoter paid Madonna about $70 million, the Journal said. U2 extended its record contract with Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group SA late last year and also has a long-term publishing deal with Universal, the Journal said. For U2, the promoter is effectively paying the band to lock in the status quo: Live Nation or its predecessors have produced and promoted every world-wide U2 tour since 1997, and a Live Nation subsidiary already manages the band's Web site and fan club, the Journal said. Formed in Dublin in 1976, U2 remains one of the most potent live draws in the world. Its most recent tour was the second-highest-grossing concert tour in history, earning $389.4 million at the box office, according to data from Billboard magazine. The Rolling Stones' 2005-07 "Bigger Bang" tour took in $ 558.3 million. Live Nation promoted both. U2's record sales haven't held up quite as well; 2004's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" wasn't among the 10 best-selling albums in the U.S. that year, the Journal said. cnn

U2 Signs With Live Nation, Forces World To Imagine What Bono Will Look Like In 2021 U2 has signed a 12-year-deal with Live Nation, handing their worldwide merchandising, digital and branding rights over to the concert-promotion behemoth. The size of the payoff was not announced, but it should be considerably smaller than the $120 million the monolith shelled out to Madonna, as the band will continue recording for Universal Music Group. But with the majors rushing to sign their acts to all-encompassing "360" deals in the face of dwindling music sales, "merchandise and licensing rights, sponsorship and strategic alliances, digital rights, fan club/Web sites and other marketing and creative services" may be the sweeter plums. Which would you rather own, the copyright to Bono's mug or the sequel to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb? source: idolator.com

U2 Signs 12-Year Deal With Live Nation March 31, 2008, 3:10 PM ET - Band Will Continue To Record For Universal Music Group - Ray Waddell, Nashville - U2's deal with Live Nation puts the promoter in business with one of the highest earning bands in the world for more than a decade. It's a 12-year deal with Live Nation Artists that includes worldwide touring, merchandising, and the band's U2.com Web site. The deal, however, is not a true 360-degree pact, as there is no publishing component and the band retains its relationship with Universal Music to release music. "It's not do-or-die that we have to have everything. We just have to have certain critical mass, and we more than have it in this deal," Michael Cohl, Live Nation chairman of the board and CEO of Live Nation Artists, tells Billboard.com. U2 manager Paul McGuinness adds, "There's a certain convergence taking place in the industry, and it's obvious that the biggest part of U2's business now is their live business, even though they're a major, major record-selling act." The band's relationship with Live Nation has been "pretty near perfect," McGuinness says. "For some time now they've been executing, promoting and producing our tours as partners pretty well perfectly. Since they want to consolidate rights and they have an online vision that I believe in, their Ticketmaster deal is expiring, which is going to change their margin, I'm very happy to go into a partnership with them. And, apart from all the financial stuff, there is a real friendship, a real bond." Financial terms were not disclosed, but Cohl says that the deal was similar to the previously announced Madonna deal (valued at $120 million), in that there was some money paid upfront and that LNA would share in the profits and will be "substantially and materially involved" in all pertinent rights' revenue streams. Both camps expect synergies to come into play when exploitation of these rights are integrated. "Conceptually it's got to be better, in that the broadcast and the streaming and the Internet and the fan club and the website are all in the same hands," says Cohl. "There's no debate. There are no different vested interests. We're going to have a great starting block and where we go will be new, unexplored territory that instinctively feels like it should be exponentially better." U2 is in an elite class for touring, with its 2005-2007 Vertigo tour taking in close to $400 million, the second highest ever. So touring alone should generate more than a billion dollars in grosses over the course of the contract. The length of the deal, which exceeds even Madonna's 10-year pact, "indeed is a mark of the faith and trust we have in them," says McGuinness, adding, "In 12 years time U2 will not even be the age the Rolling Stones are now." If everything goes as planned, the power of the U2/Live Nation Artists venture will become apparent by next year. "The band are in the studio now. We hope to release an album this fall and tour in '09," says McGuinness. "There's a constant rolling plan and sometimes it gets postponed, but we plan all the time, and that's the current plan."
source: Billboard

Promoter Expands Reach With U2 - Live Nation, Preparing To Battle Ticketmaster, Signs Up Irish Band - Wall St. Journal, March 30, 2008 - Ethan Smith - As it girds for a looming battle with IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ticketmaster, concert promoter Live Nation Inc. is looking to enlist powerful allies. The latest to sign on: U2, which has reached a 12-year deal giving the promoter exclusive rights to produce the Irish rock band's concerts, manufacture and sell its merchandise, license its image and run its Web site and online fan club. The situation highlights the shifting landscape of the concert industry, as various players vie to expand their influence. Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter by revenue, has said it is parting ways with Ticketmaster, the biggest ticket seller, when their partnership ends at the end of this year. Live Nation plans to launch its own competing ticket service to sell seats to its own concerts as well as events staged by others. Live Nation has also acquired several companies that run Web sites and sell merchandise for artists, and it is looking for artists to sign to record deals like the one it entered last year with Madonna -- a move pitting it against record labels. Promoters, labels and ticketing companies alike are looking for ways to expand their presence online, by acquiring companies that market and promote music on the Web. "It's clear that the lines, or the silos, that were in place historically are breaking down," Arthur Fogel, Live Nation's chairman of global music, said in an interview. Many previously disparate parts of the music business are being consolidated, he added: "Companies such as us are best positioned to execute on that basket of rights." The U2 arrangement, which follows an even broader 10-year deal with Madonna, would guarantee desirable inventory for the new ticketing service, set to launch at the beginning of 2009. Unlike Live Nation's $120 million deal with Madonna, the U2 agreement -- which is to be finalized soon -- doesn't cover distribution of recorded music or music publishing. For the same rights Live Nation is getting from U2, the promoter paid Madonna about $70 million. Terms of the U2 pact weren't disclosed. U2 extended its record contract with Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group late last year, according to people familiar with the matter, and also has a long-term publishing deal with Universal. For U2, the arrangement represents a windfall that results ultimately from Live Nation's newly embattled position and its resulting need for loyal allies. The promoter is effectively paying the band to lock in the status quo: Live Nation or its predecessors have produced and promoted every world-wide U2 tour since 1997, and a Live Nation subsidiary already manages the band's Web site and fan club. Live Nation Chairman Michael Cohl said he considers Ticketmaster "already our competition." He added that long-term artist relationships are one of two keys to the company's ability to compete effectively with its rival; the other key, he said, is building up infrastructure like venues and subsidiaries that can execute merchandise deals. In preparing for this kind of battle, Mr. Cohl said, "one of the things you do is start to position yourself in terms of the hardware, and you try to position yourself in terms of the content. We're trying to line up as much of both as we consider meaningful and beneficial." Live Nation's stock closed Friday at $11.83 in 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, sliding 10 cents and coming in at nearly half its closing price of $23.36 on Oct. 10, the day before the Madonna deal became known. Formed in Dublin in 1976, U2 remains one of the most potent live draws in the world. Its most recent tour was the second-highest-grossing concert tour in history, earning $389.4 million at the box office, according to data from Billboard magazine. The Rolling Stones' 2005-07 "Bigger Bang" tour took in $558.3 million. Live Nation promoted both. U2's record sales haven't held up quite as well; 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb wasn't among the 10 best-selling albums in the U.S. that year. The deal may also offer ways for U2 to address problems that arose on its last tour. The band offered members of its online fan club, who paid $40 apiece to join, early access to tickets. But during the so-called fan-club presales, many would-be buyers encountered frustrating waits and a limited, expensive inventory comprising some of the worst seats in the house. Ticketmaster had a hand in the presale fiascoes, inasmuch as its infrastructure couldn't handle the surge of ticket requests that flooded its computers. But people involved say the bigger problem was that there were simply too many members in the club to provide them all premium seats. "We feel we've got a great Web site," U2 lead singer Bono said in a statement. "But we want to make it a lot better." U2.com is already hosted by Signatures Network, one of several merchandising companies recently acquired by Live Nation; they are being merged into one unit. While Live Nation has been snapping up artists along with companies that provide them services, No. 2 concert promoter AEG Live has been seeking to make strategic moves of its own. Earlier this month talks stalled in a deal for Ticketmaster and Cablevision Corp. to take a 49% stake in the promoter, which is owned by Anschutz Corp. IAC and Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, together operate a personal-finance Web site. sourece: wsj


180 Things I Hate About You
I love this idea. Eighteen artists based in London were asked to design a dartboard with the thing they most hated on it for an exhibition curated by Garudio Studiage that starts at the Dazed & Confused Gallery this week. From left, Bono, moths and drivers on mobile phones were most hated by artists Miles Donovan, James Hollingworth and Annabelle Hartmann respectively. (Click images for detail.) Who are we to disagree? You can see more of the works at the 180 Things I Hate About You site, or head to the exhibition, which runs from this Friday, 16 February until 23 March 2007
Dazed & Confused Gallery
112-116 Old Street London
EC1V 9BG United Kingdom
source: coolhunting

In The Name Of Love: Africa Celebrates U2 - promo video and mp3 Behind the scenes with the artists who contributed to the new album In The Name Of Love: Africa Celebrates u2.

mp3: Pride (In The Name of Love) - Soweto Gospel Choir

'Spontaneous Combustion' Daniel Lanois, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer extraordinaire, has been in the studio with U2 on several of their albums since The Unforgettable Fire in 1984 - and he's working with them on the latest. He looked back on some of those albums to come up with his U2 Playlist.
Here's Danny's U2 Playlist.
1. PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF LOVE) - The Unforgettable Fire
Now this holds a special place in my heart given that we must have recorded it at least twenty times! We tried it in the Castle and that didn’t seem to work. If I remember right Bono wanted the drum roll that springboards into the chorus to go a certain way - he had a memory relating to rehearsals - so we found ourselves in the mixing room at Windmill Lane and we still did not have the version of Pride that would satisfy our wannabe drummer. At Windmill they didn’t have a drum sound that I liked and so I insisted that we build a cement wall behind Larry’s kit so we could get that sort of stone-wall sound. Sure enough the crew came in and built a wall of cement blocks behind Larry’s kit and that sound satisfied me - a great performance by Larry - so we cut the version that ended up on the record. Drum sounds aside I think what probably delivers the song in such a big way is Bono hitting the top notes.
2. MLK - The Unforgettable Fire
This song has a sweetness to it that appeals to me. I used this beautiful Sony microphone called a C500 which has this velvety top end that sounds really nice for Bono’s voice and it’s one of those little moments you want to keep coming back to.
3. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - The Joshua Tree
The story has been told before but its worth telling again: the drums, another very fine performance from Larry, were from another song, that I didn’t want to lose and Larry’s drums inspired Edge to come up with a lovely acoustic guitar chord sequence, which itself seemed to spawn some good R’n’B melodies from Bono. But we still didn’t have a chorus: that came one morning when The Edge came in from home with the line ‘but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for’. So the song had found its identity which fuelled some very lovely bass from Adam who must have played it a dozen different times to accomodate the never ending chord changes. The background vocal is Edge, Eno and myself singing at the top of our lungs with a lot of fire. The song has such a lot of feeling in it that it sustains me even now.
4. Exit - The Joshua Tree
This was a lovely gift from the band room: U2 have the capacity to have spontaneous combustions and this song is a fine example of that kind of work where you never know what is going to happen when you huddle up with them in the band room. We call it the room of shattered metal and glass! Exit was in fact an extract from a very long jam, the shining gem of that jam, and I remember some long nights chopping the tape to pull out the best bits.
5. Mothers Of The Disappeared - The Joshua Tree
I love that piece of music as it’s a marriage of human playing of instruments and of technology. Eno came up with some great kind of machine gun and bomb sounds, almost like a soundtrack piece of music, and painting such a strong picture. It’s a subject matter that should be looked at all the time – a strong force going into a small community and pushing it around to serve its own needs, even if the expense is people going missing.
6. One - Achtung Baby
What an incredible journey Achtung Baby was. The guys had it in their mind that they wanted to make a rock’n’roll European record so they went into Hansa Studios in Berlin where Iggy Pop and Bowie and Eno had worked - Eno found himself sitting in the same chair that he sat in the seventies and it was a great place of innovation. That wonderful old orchestra room spawned the song One, a favourite of mine. That song started with a chord sequence from The Edge who then came up with a second chord sequence, and when I suggested a blend of the two that slight twist allowed Bono to come up with his melody. It was a song built through several chapters. As I remember right after a Christmas break, Eno and I turned up at Hansa before the band had arrived, and I had this Les Paul part which I call the mantra and Eno doubled it up on the synth so that was a little surprise for the guys when they walked in. That’s a nice thing to do for Bono, to juice him up with some sonics, that way he usually goes off to the microphone and comes up with something new and that was the case with this.
7. Until The End of the World - Achtung Baby
Flood came up with a great mix here, I was his cheerleader. There was something on the equalisers on the console we used that allowed us to have a kind of sweeping effect on the guitar, almost like a wah wah peddle being performed on the consol. I love the vitality and speed of this song.
8. You're So Cruel - Achtung Baby
One of my favourite grooves from Larry, about as close as we’ve ever gotten to a Motown or Sun Studios performance and such a simplicity and clarity, that it’s always fun for me to listen to.
9. Love is Blindness - Achtung Baby
I love the darkness of this, we hit on something there sonically.
10. Beautiful Day - All That You Can't Leave Behind
There’s a song that got bashed around pretty well in the studio and went through many versions. Chord sequence by Bono I believe and kind of rooted in the tradition of what I call the Bo Diddley riff. It never quite grew out of bar room territory. We didn’t really know what to do with it, then Eno dialled up a little drum beat, and a piano part and a string part, kind of as a loop and I played a telecaster part in harmony with that which provided a lot of encouragement to the room and so a big jam took place and in the middle of that session Bono yelled ‘It’s a beautiful day!’. And then we went for lunch! When we came back we realised that that had been a special moment and so we transferred that beautiful day idea to an earlier part of the song, creating a chorus, and it went on from there. Background singing is by Edge and myself, processed by Mr Eno who made us sound like a choir.
11. Grace - All That You Can't Leave Behind
I love this piece, another one of those quiet numbers that I like to hear on records, you are hearing a nice blend of spontaneous U2 track, grown by the Eno and Lanois production team.
12. Where The Streets Have No Name - The Joshua Tree
Another track that we struggled with but there was always something in the symphonic beginning which appealed to everybody and that had come from a demo Edge had made at home. It has a strange time signature which really screwed up the rhythm section, a very anti-rock’n’roll thing to do. I can remember myself like a science teacher pointing people through the chord changes. In the end it has this great uplifting feel and maybe it is the closest thing U2 have ever come to a dance song.
Read and watch our clip of the band in Morocco with Danny
Back to Play Lists
Click here to read Catherine Owen's U2 Playlist
Click here to read Jacknife Lee's U2 Playlist
source: U2.com