The Set List

U2 & Live Nation: Two Hearts Beat As One On The Concert Trail And Merch Table

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.

Concert Promoters Buy The Right to Name Their Own Price

Ever since the Internet made ticket scalping  a business to enjoy in the comfort of your own home, we have seen a parade of legit businesses get involved, from startups like  StubHub to mainstays such as Ticketmaster.
Live Nation, which is implementing its own ticketing system in 2009 to replace its Ticketmaster agreements, is no fool and intends to jump in the resale arena, pledging to share  its extra  revenue with the artists themselves.
The idea: Evil or genius? Or is it both?
Live Nation says its research shows that the average StubHub sale is two-times face value. So let's say Bruce Springsteen is still touring when LN's system goes into place and is still charging about $100 a ticket. We'll be generous and say the fees on the ticket are $10. The initial purchaser lists, and sells the ticket for 200 bucks a pop so he's happy with his profit.
Now then, will Live Nation do the double dip the way StubHub does, charging the seller and the buyer a commission? On StubHub, the seller would receive a check for $170; the buyer, who gets the ticket FedEx'd to him, is probably sending about $230.
Live Nation will have the benefit of canceling the bar code on one ticket and creating a new one, eliminating the need for physical delivery. The promoter could therefore look very competitive charging a 10% fee on both ends of the transaction.
But will they? And when a performer such as Springsteen, who has kept his prices reasonable for decades, or any other performer receives a statement showing the percentage of fees they receive from the secondary market, will they be satisfied with the amount? Or will they see this as  case of leaving money on the table?
Concert tickets are pretty much like fine wine: They have the ability to appreciate overnight based on supply and demand. Winemakers and visual artists don't participate in the secondary market, but if Live Nation finds an equitable way to compensate artists who appear to not be greedy when they initially sell their tickets, they may create a groundbreaking pact with musicians.
The flip side, of course, is an even-more out of control ticket-scalping marketplace. 
The Variety news story on Live Nation's ticketing plans follows.