The biggest rock band in the world has made a deal with the largest concert promoter in the world that cements their next 12 years as a partnership.
U2 has joined Madonna on the Live Nation Artists roster but unlike Madge, the Irish band will keep its recordings and publishing within the Universal Music Group empire. Deal does include U2's  merchandising, digital and branding rights.
This time, Live Nation did not disclose the financial arrangement, but it does not sound that far off from the way the Rolling Stones have been conducting business for years. Band gets a lump sum for a certain amount of dates and it is up to the promoter to make it work financially on their end. Naturally, both sides take a cut from the profits.
Bono is obviously drinking the Live Nation Kool-Aid. The buying and selling spree of LN chief Michael Rapino - designed to focus the company strictly on concert promotion, ticketing and merchandising - is paying off as it looks very much like a one-stop of the future. Rapino's pitch, now that his ducks are in a row, is that the concert promoter can have a lasting and enduring relationship with a music consumer beyond the two or three hours spent inside the concert venue.
"(U2 wants) a closer, more direct relationship between the band and its audience and Live Nation has pledged to help us with that," Bono said in a statement.
It is highly conceivable that when U2 issues the album they are working on now, they may well find a need to promote the album with viral efforts similar to one being executed by R.E.M. over the last month to raise awareness and enthusiasm for "Accelerate," which comes out Tuesday.
Difference for R.E.M., though, is a dramatic return to a raw guitar sound that the band and Warner Bros. believe may well help it outperform their last three releases, which have fared poorly at retail. U2, on the other hand, has been the rare beacon of success in the rock marketplace since the early 1980s.