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 playedto millions around the world on their ground-breaking tours. Their elevenstudio albums have garnered 22 Grammy Awards and sold in excess of 140million copies globally. Through this new association U2 and Live NationArtists will collaborate on a variety of the band's global musicenterprises 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 theknot," said U2's Bono. "With regards to U2.com, we feel we've got a greatwebsite, but we want to make it a lot better. We want a closer, more directrelationship between the band and its audience and Live Nation has pledgedto help us with that."
Arthur Fogel, Chairman of Live Nation's Global Music Division and ChiefExecutive Officer of Global Touring, who has produced every U2 tour sincePopMart in 1997, said, "Our long relationship with U2 has endured andflourished over the years. This is an opportunity to move forward with themwhile building on the past, utilizing our unparalleled global marketingplatform to expand U2's universe into the future."
Paul McGuinness, U2's Manager said, "U2 are doing their best work rightnow, on record and in concert. The opportunity to integrate U2 and LiveNation's vision of the future is a great extension of our establishedbusiness and of our working relationship with Arthur Fogel and MichaelCohl, which started back in 1980 at the El Mocambo in Toronto."
By expanding the scope of its activities with touring artists, LiveNation Artists unlocks value to increase economic benefits to artiststhrough the creation of innovative new products, and delivery anddistribution channels for music and other content. Operating within thisnew model, Live Nation Artists serves more than 1,000 artists through itsarray of services, including global touring, merchandise and licensing(Signatures Network, Anthill, TRUNK, Ltd.), sponsorship and strategicalliances, recorded music, studios, media rights, digital rights, fanclub/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 andalso publishing is not affected by the Live Nation deal. The deal issubject to the completion of documentation and is expected to be finalizedin the coming months.
ABOUT LIVE NATION:
Live Nation is the future of the music business. With the most liveconcerts, music venues and festivals in the world and the mostcomprehensive concert search engine on the web, Live Nation isrevolutionizing the music industry: onstage and online. Headquartered inLos Angeles, California, Live Nation is listed on the New York StockExchange, trading under the symbol "LYV." Additional information about thecompany can be found at http://www.livenation.com under the "About Us"section.
"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 playedto millions around the world on their ground-breaking tours. Their elevenstudio albums have garnered 22 Grammy Awards and sold in excess of 140million copies globally. Through this new association U2 and Live NationArtists will collaborate on a variety of the band's global musicenterprises 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 theknot," said U2's Bono. "With regards to U2.com, we feel we've got a greatwebsite, but we want to make it a lot better. We want a closer, more directrelationship between the band and its audience and Live Nation has pledgedto help us with that."
Arthur Fogel, Chairman of Live Nation's Global Music Division and ChiefExecutive Officer of Global Touring, who has produced every U2 tour sincePopMart in 1997, said, "Our long relationship with U2 has endured andflourished over the years. This is an opportunity to move forward with themwhile building on the past, utilizing our unparalleled global marketingplatform to expand U2's universe into the future."
Paul McGuinness, U2's Manager said, "U2 are doing their best work rightnow, on record and in concert. The opportunity to integrate U2 and LiveNation's vision of the future is a great extension of our establishedbusiness and of our working relationship with Arthur Fogel and MichaelCohl, which started back in 1980 at the El Mocambo in Toronto."
By expanding the scope of its activities with touring artists, LiveNation Artists unlocks value to increase economic benefits to artiststhrough the creation of innovative new products, and delivery anddistribution channels for music and other content. Operating within thisnew model, Live Nation Artists serves more than 1,000 artists through itsarray of services, including global touring, merchandise and licensing(Signatures Network, Anthill, TRUNK, Ltd.), sponsorship and strategicalliances, recorded music, studios, media rights, digital rights, fanclub/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 andalso publishing is not affected by the Live Nation deal. The deal issubject to the completion of documentation and is expected to be finalizedin the coming months.
ABOUT LIVE NATION:
Live Nation is the future of the music business. With the most liveconcerts, music venues and festivals in the world and the mostcomprehensive concert search engine on the web, Live Nation isrevolutionizing the music industry: onstage and online. Headquartered inLos Angeles, California, Live Nation is listed on the New York StockExchange, trading under the symbol "LYV." Additional information about thecompany can be found at http://www.livenation.com under the "About Us"section.
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