Bono/ U2TOURFANS / Nick Walker @
Owning the rights to your music considered one of the most important items on a bands list to complete.
Most bands end up giving them away because of the need to produce their music and fund their projects.
Bands to often find that their catalog ends up sold a couple of different times before returning to their rightful owners.
U2 is not unlike any other band from the 80’s their masters held in the hands of others has been a challenge to get back.
Paul McGuiness in a interview with Billboard outlines the move forward to new management as a opportunity for Live Nation to provide some finances for the future of U2. “The rights to U2’s music, their masters and their copyrights, have been, with difficulty and at some costs, completely retrieved.
Paul of course has equity participation in the deal and that was due to the band agreeing on selling an equity share to Paul. U2 has all the remaining rights and they now own 100% of their masters as well as their copyrights.
Live Nation has been supportive in the transaction by financing the transaction that is sure to pay dividends to the band family long after U2’s departure from the stage.