After finding artists at the end of recording contracts with majors, Live Nation has started laying out pots of gold for acts with a few albums still to go on their current pacts.
Nine figure deals, especially in this economy, are going to be hard to come by from a single entity in the music industry  and the only places where the words growth  is mentioned are in music publishing and touring.
Nickelback and Shakira have signed with Live Nation Artists, following the path established by Madonna and Jay-Z. While both acts will have their shows promoted by Live Nation in the near future, there will be a time gap between the signings and the release of recordings under the Live Nation agreements.
Nickelback owes Roadrunner Records two studio albums and a greatest hits package as does Shakira, who will split her two studio albums by language, one Spanish and one English.
Nickelback has proven themselves both prolific and enduring: Two years and 10 months after its release, their album "All the Right Reasons" is still in the top 100. It is not unreasonable to think Nickelback will be recording for Live Nation Artists by 2012.
Shakira is another matter. An international superstar in Spanish, she posted reasonable early numbers with her English language album "Oral Fixation Vol. 2" before it sank quickly. The release of the single "Hips Don't Lie," which was accompanied by heavy promotional efforts including a very successful fan video contest,  rejuvenated her career. Album was re-released with the single, which led to a healthy stay in the upper reaches of the album sales chart.
She has been working off and on on her new album since February, which makes delivery this year possible though not likely. The question for Sony Music is whether to follow the release pattern of her two last albums and release them five-six months apart, move the two closer together or put any even bigger gap between the two.
Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino said the company intends to ink up to six artists in the first year of Live Nation Artists; Shakira and Nickelback are artists three and four.
The deal with Nickelback calls for three albums and  three touring cycles with an option for a fourth.   Live Nation will operate the band's touring, tour sponsorship, tour merchandise, tour VIP/travel packages, secondary ticketing, recorded music, clothing, licensing and other retail merchandise, non-tour sponsorship and endorsements, DVD and broadcast rights, fan club, website and literary rights.
The missing piece - and the place where the income stream is flowing extraordinarily well for Nickelback - is publishing. Warner Chappell has that deal locked up for years to come.