Conventional wisdom in the rock world used to dictate that a concert tour would only do as well as the record it was promoting. U2 blows this theory out of the water.
The Irish quartet’s latest album, No Line on the Horizon, is having dismal sales while their 360° Tour has broken all tour records.
The album arrived in stores to lukewarm reviews and little fanfare. The result: this album has only sold a third of what its predecessor did, 2005’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. It has only brought in a quarter of what All That You Can’t Leave Behind made in 2000.
The U2 tour, on the other hand, is a must-see event. The tour had unprecedented success in 2009 and made $109 million last year, the most of any music tour. This was far ahead of second place Bruce Springsteen’s tour which brought in $57 million.
These numbers include concert receipts, and music royalties and record sales. Madonna ($47.2 million), AC/DC (43.6 million) and Britney Spears ($38.8 million) rounded out the top 5 in 2009.