Deseree Stukes ([email protected])
Tue, 13 Oct 1998 19:01:02 -0400
>From Rolling Stone online:
The Sweetest Thing
Achtung, baby: U2 overload coming your way.
U2's generous $50 million record deal has yet to generate new music
These are bountiful times for U2 fans. In early November comes the
release of The Best of 1980-1990, a greatest hits package, complete with
a disc-full of B-side favorites. Then, in the next year, as part of the
$50 million deal the band recently signed with its label Island Records,
the second of three greatest-hits installments are expected to hit
stores shelves. But that may not be all.
According to a music industry attorney with knowledge of U2's $50
million deal, the enormity of the contract was used primarily as an
"incentive for the band to produce new studio material, to make sure
Island got new product quickly." Consequently, it's possible U2 may
release three records (two greatest hits packages and a new studio
offering) within the next fourteen months. U2's last studio album, Pop,
was released in early `97. A spokesman for Island says there are no
plans at this time to release a U2 studio album next year.
The incentive clause goes a long way towards explaining the $50 million
deal, which was seen within the industry as unusually generous. After
all, just two years ago, R.E.M. signed a monstrous $80 million deal with
Warner Bros. to produce scores of new studio records over a long period
of time. For Island to pay U2 $50 million to simply repackage old
material in greatest hits form was considered odd, even for the label's
most lucrative act. (It was also odd that greatest hits records were not
part of U2's existing contract and had to be negotiated separately.) If
Island could quickly land another studio album from the band, whose
albums continue to sell internationally even as its American base
shrinks, then the label stands a better chance at recouping its $50
million investment.
ERIC BOEHLERT
deseree
http://www.interference.com
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