Photo courtesy of vinospizza

July 11th, 2008 – Nickelback has signed a contract with Live Nation that is rumoured to have net them a guaranteed $50-70 million dollars. Usually, a band teams up with a record company and shares the profits of the CD sales. The band is able to make their own money from touring, merchandise, and marketing (ie. commercials).

Seeing as the traditional music market is tanking due to downloads, labels are wanting a cut of the other income sources available to the artist. Live Nation is trumping all that by taking care of everything and simply paying the band a guaranteed (and huge) lump sum, leveraged against all money made from the exploitation of the band’s total revenue streams in the future.

So far mega investors like Live Nation are only snapping up guaranteed money-making acts and this has lead some of smaller acts to cry foul. Their contention is that the power of such companies will suffocate the indie bands and labels. My concern is that since Live Nation is spending so much money on Chad Kroeger that everytime I turn on the radio, I’ll hear 6 hours of straight Nickelback info-mercials. What’s your take?

Nickelback’s mega-deal via MusicRadar

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 12:15 am.
Categories: Asides, Music Business and Law, Questions.

2 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. 3NOS

    i really don’t prefer to listen to endless nickelback and/or nickelback-endorsed products, but given the amount of money involved, i’m sure live nation will be looking to buy a LOT of air time for their artists.

    pooh

    Jul 15th, 2008

  2. smeeta

    There’s already too much Nickleback played as is!
    Pooh indeed.

    Jul 16th, 2008

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