U2 aren't sellouts, they're just snazzy businessmen who know how to make a shrewd buck. And they are marketing geniuses. If they weren't they'd have been toast by now.
One accountant for the band said "U2 is more like a major industrial corporation than a music group." And I completely agree.
I come from a third-world country called the Philippines, but I don't any problem with giving U2 my hard-earned money because they deserve it with the quality of music they give me. Right now, they are the best product in the music shelves.
To appreciate U2's business side much much more, I'd like to show you this well written article about the band:
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U2's web of rock and royalties
21/11/04 00:00
By Ian Kehoe
Accounts for Not Us, the holding company for the U2 corporate vehicle, show a firm with debts of more than €18.5million.
Fortunately for the biggest band in rock music today, it happens to own most of the companies owed money by Not Us.
Such is the complex nature of U2's finances. The accounts for last year, which were filed last week, reveal a complicated web of subsidiaries, trusts and inter-company loans. Large sums of money flow between 19 corporate entities, most of which posted a loss in the 2003 fiscal year.
"U2 is more like a major industrial corporation than a music group," said one accountant. "Like any corporation, it will have profitable units and it will have loss-making units. The difference with a band is that it can't simply jettison the loss-making units. It is a package."
The band is far from loss-making, and will generate huge sums of money in the coming year.LastFriday,U2 released their 11th studio album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, while their song, Vertigo, was sitting at the top of the British singles chart.
According to industry sources, bands are paid in three stages - first, when the group signs up to record an album; secondly, when the recording is completed; and finally when the album goes on sale. U2 reached the final payment and will also receive royalties, depending on its success.
Next year, the Dublin four-piece will embark on another money-spinning tour. The band's most recent tour, Elevation, was one of the most profitable in rock history.
According to the accounts, Not Us owed Thengel, another company controlled by the band, more than €8.8 million. The money is interest free and will not be sought "in the foreseeable future'', the accounts say.
A further €9.6millionwas due to a collection of subsidiaries. Straypass, a company which was set up to run a concert tour, was due €2.6 million from the holding company.
U2 Limited, which manufactures master tapes, was owed more than €4.7 million.
Not Us, like all Irish small companies, is only required to publish abridged accounts. As such, they provide a limited understanding of the band's finances and do not contain details of income and expenditure.
"It probably suits the band to have so many subsidiaries," said Suzanne Kelly, a leading tax lawyer.
"Different elements of the business are taxed at different rates. For example, they would not have to pay tax on the royalties from songwriting, due to the artists' exemption.
"However, they would have to pay tax on profits from merchandising or from sponsorship. It is a very complex area and the accounts would reflect this."
Industry sources said that much of U2's wealth came from songwriting and was therefore exempt from tax, as creative artists do not pay tax on their royalties. Furthermore, most of the band's companies did not have to pay corporation tax on profits, as most of them made a loss.
The accounts do not reveal how much the band paid in tax. However, €110,000was due to the Revenue Commissioners at the end of 2003, according to the accounts.
"It is a case of attributing expenditure so that it matches your income," said Kelly. "That is the key to limiting tax liability in any business. If you don't make a profit, you can't pay tax on it.
"But it is not simply a case of making sure you don't make a profit by transferring money elsewhere.
"You will have to pay tax on money you take from the company."
The accounts show U2 has two separate trusts, a defined pension vehicle called the Princus Investment Trust and the U2 Partnership Trust. Neither is obliged to file accounts.
"U2 have a number of different interests and probably want to ring fence those," said one industry figure. "The music industry is cyclical.
You have years where you make a lot of money through concerts or promotions. Alternatively, you have years when you are not really doing much aside from writing music."
A separate set of accounts for Brushfield, the holding company for the Clarence Hotel, which is owned by Bono, The Edge and Dublin businessman Harry Crosbie, show that the hotel made a pre-tax loss of €302,000 for the year ending December 31, 2003.
The hotel closed the year with accumulated losses of more than €11.2 million.
The hotel increased its turnover from €13.4 million in 2002 to €14.9 million last year. Despite its retained losses, it had €9.7 million in the bank at the end of the year, according to the accounts.
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Cheers,
J
to Reggie and verte's posts. 
