Jay-Z is set to become the third major recording artist in six months to sign a multimillion dollar contract with Live Nation, the concert promotions company.
According to a Live Nation spokesperson, the 38-year-old rapper will confirm details of the $150 million deal on Monday, joining Madonna and U2 among the company's high-profile signings. The New York Times, who published the story today, claims Jay Z's deal "rivals the biggest music contracts ever awarded".
The paper suggests the agreement encompasses financing of Jay Z's own entertainment venture and his live shows and tours for the next 10 years. Not bad for a man who announced his retirement five years ago.
The deal is also said to include the rapper's future recordings, one of the vital aspects lacking from the 12-year agreement Live Nation made with U2, but similar to the $120m deal Madonna signed with them at the end of last year.
Ironically, Jay-Z's music is the only part of his formidable empire that's in decline. He owns a successful chain of nightclubs and sold his Rocawear clothing line last year for $204m, but his last album, American Gangster, may or may not have fallen prey to the global downward trend in CD sales when it sold only 1m copies in the US, far fewer than his previous releases.
Jay-Z's current record label, Universal, has issued a statement of no comment.
