Madonna 360 degree contract becomes more 270, 260-ish

Back in 2007, you'll recall that amid much hoopla, Madonna signed a ten year deal with LiveNation for everything:

The 10-year deal encompasses all of Madonna's future music and music-related businesses, including the exploitation of the Madonna brand, new studio albums, touring, merchandising, fan clubs/Web sites, DVDs, music-related television and film projects and associated sponsorship agreements. This model will address all of Madonna's music ventures as a total entity for the first time in her career.

"The real story here is while everyone's talking 360 [degree deals], we were quietly building the services to do it right," Rapino says. "We have spent a considerable amount of resources building this Artist Nation division first and then going after artists second. Madonna would not have done a 360 deal with us just because of our touring capability. We had to prove to her and others that we have been working on and built a very good execution capacity at Artist Nation."

Surprising, then, that she's just signed a three album deal with Universal.

Perhaps LiveNation weren't quite as good at being a record label as they thought they were. Perhaps they should have spent less time on the execution capacity, and focused on the records?

HMV expands at Zavvi's expense

Gennaro Castaldo is going to have to be spread ever thinner: HMV have bought fourteen branches of Zavvi to rebrand with the dog and the gramophone and the youth-clubby feel:

The Zavvi stores it is buying are all profitable, HMV said, and are primarily in locations where it does not currently have a store.

It's spending two million, including refits, which suggests it's getting a better bargain than most people who've turned up at Zavvi stores looking for sales.

Meanwhile, the company is trying its hand at live music, paying for naming rights over the Hammersmith Apollo - soon to be the HMV Apollo - and laying plans:

Chief executive Simon Fox said the deal was "far more" than a rebranding exercise of some of the venues.

"Music is very much part of our DNA, and by extending the HMV brand into the growing live music and entertainment market, our customers will be able as never before to access and experience music in all of its forms via HMV," he said.

Among the initiatives will be HMV loyalty card holders being able to "earn" tickets to gigs as rewards.

So it's much more than rebranding. It's rebranding and flogging cheap tickets.

The MAMA Group said the deal "alters the face of the live venue business in the UK".

"The engagement of artist and fan is the key driver of the music industry and that engagement is at its most evident at live events," the firm added.

It said the venture with HMV would link tickets, music and merchandise. "A direct artist-to-fan relationship is a way to help the music industry grow and prosper," it said.

Perhaps that's true, although isn't the weak link that neither MAMA nor HMV actually represent any artists (unless you count Castaldo, of course)?

Hey... maybe HMV might think about releasing records, too. If it can get its brand back from EMI.

Thanks for the shares, but Bono wants his money

Back when LiveNation signed up U2, part of the deal was a large chunk of LiveNation stock being transferred to the Dutch band. Presumably LiveNation hoped that this would give Bono and his chums a sharper interest in performing well - if they do well, the company does well; if the company does well, they will do well. A virtuous circle.

Unfortunately, U2 have decided they'll rather have the cash, and have flogged off their shares. Even more unpleasantly for LiveNation, the company had promised to guarantee the stock would be worth at USD25million - a guarantee which might have been wise when the deal was struck, but which is looking a little sick now that the markets have got troubles.

Indeed, the stock has plummeted so far that LiveNation are going to have to find USD19million for U2.

It's not entirely clear that it makes sense to suddenly pitch up to your employer and demand - in straightened times - that they find millions and millions of dollars from somewhere; it might be thought of as a little self-defeating to give financial problems to the company to whom you look for investment in your career. Perhaps U2 really, badly need the money. Or maybe they were just afraid that the stock value of LiveNation could have wiped out the company before they got a chance to cash it in. Could it be that U2 know what a stinker the next U2 album will be?

Gordon in the morning: Here you are, Robbie

Gordon Smart's continuing use of Bizarre as Robbie Williams' personal cheerleader reaches a new low today, with a story that suggests, ooh, that Williams could sign a huge contract once he's free from EMI after the next album:

But now the record industry is queuing up to sign him once his EMI deal ends — laden with loads of dosh. A source revealed: �Rudebox was not Robbie’s greatest work and things went very quiet for him afterwards.

�He went into rehab and has spent time getting his head together.

�But now his next deal could be a record-breaker.

�Word is getting out that his new album is sounding brilliant and the Take That reunion coverage has helped.

�Live Nation would be very keen. They have recently signed MADONNA and U2 on massive deals. They could give Robbie a huge contract which would include his releases, live dates and all the extras that accompany that.�

(Incidentally, isn't it a little pathetic that the Sun is incapable for publishing a story without munging the quote marks into these strange � things?)

The "source" - who, clearly, is someone trying to talk up the value of a Williams contract - seems to be hoping against hope: LiveNation have recently had a reshuffling of management which makes them cooler on the idea of giving large sums of cash over to acts. Even if they were still doing enormous 360 degree deals, why would they be interested in a "record-breaking" deal with someone who couldn't sell a record in America if it came with a free Taco Bell burrito on the cover? If Williams' team really wants a large deal from LiveNation, they'd be better off trying to find a credulous US journalist to run their press releases. That they can't find one, and they're wasting their time tickling the London papers, shows the problem they have.

Warners wants it all

Edgar Bronfman, the man who is - let's say - in charge of Warners Music Group, has announced that in future they'll only be interested in signing 360 degree deals with artists.

You can see why this might be appealing to Warners - after all, their core business, the one in which they have expertise, isn't doing as well nowadays. But where would be the value for an artist, when looking for a 360 degree deal, in signing with a company whose expertise lays in the bit that isn't doing as well nowadays?

True, through some of the last month's merger of management company Front Line and Ticketmaster, Warner is now represented on the board of an organisation which offers concert promotion and career management. But Ticketmaster is looking to sign up 360 deals itself - would you stable your horse with someone whose mate also does training if you could just place him with a trainer who runs his own stable as well?

Bad news for big labels: Ticketmaster wants their jobs

Following on from LiveNation's tentative steps to move from promotion into fully servicing musician's careers, Ticketmaster has announced plans that also would eat into the point of standalone record labels:

"The biggest misconception about this [Front Line management takeover] deal is that Ticketmaster in the future will be what it was in the past," recently minted Ticketmaster head Irving Azoff told Billboard. "The new name of the company is Ticketmaster Entertainment, and it's a platform for us to build a lot of other things. The fortunes of this company aren't going to rise and fall just on the ticketing business. We're going to build the ability for people to distribute their music."

Not quite moving into the label business - as yet - but a major artist looking to avoid giving large chunks of cash to the EMIs of this planet might find the idea of getting a company to handle flogging downloads alongside the more lucrative selling of tickets an attractive one. If I ran a major, I think I'd be thinking if the future might involve bringing my catalogue into a company like Ticketmaster or LiveNation now, rather than waiting until my stock was so low they could snap it up for a pittance.

Nickelback... back... back

As James points out in the comments on the Shakira piece, LiveNation have also signed a 360 deal with Nickelback.

Which is enough excuse to mention the hilarious - but not in the way they think - sofa store advert currently churning out on ITV right now, which isn't even a parody of the Rock Star video; it just is the Rock Star video - people miming to Chad Kroeger's vocals, albeit this time with sofas behind them. The idea being, you see, you don't have to be a rock star to buy a sofa at this sofa store. (On this occasion, I'm not being cussed by not mentioning the company - I really can't tell remember what company it is, which probably is best for them.)

You wonder why Kroeger - a man who apparently made £34million from touring in 06/07 - happily allowed the advert to be made, almost as much as the company who chose to make the advert. It's like seeing the word "misbegotten" mimed out for you by the 2006 Charades World Championship winner. Are they that hard up for a few quid?

Lucky that my demands are small and humble, so you don't mistake them for Madonna's

The second slightly-less-high-profile 360 degree tours-and-records deal for LiveNation: Shakira has thrown her lot in with them for the next ten years.

Live Nation at war

Clear Channel spin-off Live Nation - concert promotion company trying to turn full-service music business - is suffering from a management bitch-fight over its 360 deals.

The signing of Madonna as a recording artist as well as a live star didn't entirely make Wall Street sing like they were expecting, and the LiveNation share price has lost 40% of its value since the announcement. Not all the loss is going to be down to the Madonna deal, but it does suggest a certain lack of conviction that the model and management are correct.

This, it seems, is a debate that has been taking place in the top of Live Nation, too - chairman Michael Cohl certain that this is still the way ahead; CEO Michael Rapino wanting to cool the pace.

Rapino looks like the victor, with Cohl believed to be looking for boxes while colleagues try to think of something witty and positive to put in a leaving card.

If you were Madonna, you might feel a little nervous that the company that signed you up for a trail-blazing 360 deal now seems to be wondering if it's the right road to be going down.