U2 finally found what it was looking for.
Live Nation announced Monday that it reached an agreement with arguably the world's most popular band for a 12-year deal that would put touring, licensing, sponsorship, digital media and other band endeavors in the hands of the concert behemoth.
"Our long relationship with U2 has endured and flourished over the years," remarked Live Nation's CEO of global touring Arthur Fogel, who produced every U2 tour since 1997's PopMart. "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."
"We've been dating for over 20 years now," Bono chimed in. "It's about time we tied the knot."
To date, the Hall of Fame rockers have earned 22 Grammy trophies and sold over 140 million worldwide copies over 11 studio albums. Currently recording a new album, U2 sold $389 million worth of tickets on their 2005-06 Vertigo tour, ranking only behind the Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour as the highest grosser of all time.
In addition to producing their tours and pursuing other opportunities for the band, Live Nation will work with the Irish rockers to develop U2.com.
"With regards to U2.com," said Bono, "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."
Bono and the boys follow on the heels of Madonna, who signed an all-around $120 million deal last fall that includes a three-album commitment for Live Nation Artists.
U2's deal, however, is more akin to the one inked by the tween-friendly Jonas Brothers in January, which did not cover music rights. Instead, U2 will continue recording for longtime label Universal Music and has a separate deal with Universal for publishing.
Live Nation leads the live music market with the most concerts, venues and festivals in the world. The company continues to expand into other avenues, including making overall deals with artists themselves. Similarly, music labels have recently been developing their own 360-degree deals that package recording, publishing, touring and merchandising together. British artist Robbie Williams signed the most famous all-inclusive deal in 2002 for a record-breaking £80 million.
The financial terms with Live Nation have yet to be disclosed, but David Joyce, an analyst at Miller Tabak, conjectured to Reuters that the U2 deal is likely in the $100 million range. Apparently Live Nation thinks it's worth every penny.
"U2 has created some of the greatest rock music of all time and their career has been uniquely successful," said Michael Cohl, chairman of Live Nation. "It has long been our intention to consolidate and extend our relationship with U2, so this is a very exciting deal for us...We are delighted to be able to work with them for many years into the future."
In other words, it's a beautiful day for all involved.