Not content to sit back after signing up Madonna, Noel Gallagher’s fave rapper Jay-Z, and rockin’ dudes Nickleback to 360 degree deals, Live Nation have now decided to have a crack at the Latin music sector and signed up Columbian megastar Shakira. The story event merited a full page article on the “upstart company that is changing the face of music” in this weekend’s Observer newspaper, which claims that the US-based company have now spent over $400 million on signings, since their first deal last October.

So what are these major artists jumping ship? With so much turmoil in the record industry at the moment, it’s hardly a surprise that some artists are keen to look at any opportunity that might offer them long term financial security. And with record sales continuing to shrink it seems that the major labels are at best unwilling, and at worst financially powerless to compete, even though all of them are turning themselves into 360 degree companies.

However, at a time when the artists are probably in a more powerful position than ever, it seems odd that some of them are prepared to sign away ALL their rights to one company. Artists have long complained that record company contracts were too restrictive, with rights ownership often being the biggest big bone of contention. So what’s changed? Or is the Live Nation signing-on fee just too big to ignore?

It seems then that music and football have more things in common than we’d ever thought! The value of the top players/artists is going through the roof, contracts seem to be there to be broken, and nobody seems to know who’s job it will be to develop the stars of the future?

And to cap it all Christiano Ronaldo and Prince both think they are slaves! It’s good to know that it’s not just art and commerce that can occasionally make uneasy bedfellows!

So who will sign to Live Nation next? We reckon the odds could look something like this:

Robbie Williams 2-1 odds on favourite
Mariah Carey 7-2
Coldplay 9-1
Oasis 14-1
U2 35-2
Status Quo 49-1
Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Sun Ra and Jimi Hendrix are all 1,000,000-1 outsiders!