U2 Net $19 Million in Live Nation Shares In Touring Deal

U2 are set to receive 1.56 million shares of Live Nation, worth roughly $19 million, as part of the 12-year touring contract the band signed with the concert giant earlier this year. The deal, which was signed in March, includes the band's tours, merchandising and their official website. The contract is not an all-encompassing 360 deal however, as U2 will continue to release music through Universal Music. The deal's value was revealed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made last week. While U2 will have to ride the rocky stock market before learning the true value of the contract, the deal could potentially reap billions for Live Nation, as U2's Vertigo tour in 2005-2007 made over $400 million in revenues and was the second highest grossing tour of all time. U2 plan to release their new album early in 2009.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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