February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — The Limerick band the Cranberries have become the first pop group in the world to use the internet alone to sell tickets for a concert tour.
Tickets for an upcoming nine-city U.S. tour, the band’s first outing since 1997, are exclusively available through its own website.
The group is following in the footsteps of The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, who last year began taking orders for his new album exclusively through the internet.
The Cranberries, who formed in May 1990, originally made their reputation through extensive playtime on U.S. college radio stations before moving into the mainstream. Apparently, the band now feels that most of their fans have computers and access to the internet.
Following the release of their fourth album, "Bury The Hatchet,", the five-member group is to tour a string of clubs and theaters starting in Washington on April 28. A world tour is scheduled for the summer.
Sign up to The Irish Echo Newsletter
The huge success of the group since their first top-selling album, "Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can’t We?" has made them hugely wealthy, with an estimated joint fortune of £40 million.
The group has sold about 28 million albums and their holding company is now based in the Shannon Airport tax-free zone.
Lead singer Dolores O’Riordain, who writes about 70 percent of the band’s songs, is the highest earning member of the group.