Jay-Z out of Glastonbury?

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Glastonbury Festival 2008

Friday 27th to Sunday 29th June 2008
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 4AZ, England MAP
£155

Daily capacity: 150,000

Rumours are surfacing that Jay-Z might cancel playing Glastonbury, although the Glastonbury sources we've spoken to this morning say that he is still scheduled to play.

eFestivals has received several rumours about this over the last week, but they were so vague that we couldn't take anything solid from them. However, today's Sun (here) seems to back up those rumours.

The Sun says that Jay-Z has been annoyed by being used by the Festival to appeal to a younger and more urban crowd, as well as angered by suggestions his signing caused fewer ticket registrations than last year, and the reaction to the announcement of his appearance on some festival message boards.

That might be the story that's being put out for why he's canceled (if he has - remember, it's not yet confirmed!), but there's another angle to this. Last week Jay-Z signed a mega-deal thought to be worth $150M with promoters Live Nation where they get a cut of everything he does for the next ten years and he gets to stuff a whole heap of dollars in his pockets right now.

It seems very possible that Live Nation have demanded that Jay-Z honour the deal from now, and that they see Jay-Z playing Glastonbury on the cheap as not good for their deal. Glastonbury tends to pay its major acts far less than other festivals as around £2M of the money the Festival takes is given to good causes including Water Aid, Oxfam, Greenpeace, and more.

Rumour is that Jay-Z will instead play London's 02 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park on Thursday 3rd July instead - which just so happens to be promoted by his new best friends at Live Nation. Now that's a coincidence, eh?

If Jay-Z has pulled out of the Festival, it's nothing to do with tickets not having sold out when they went on sale yesterday. The information we've received very strongly indicates that, if true, the decision to pull out was made in the middle of last week- at a time that coincidentally matches when he signed the deal with Live Nation.

We're expecting some more details on this story today - we'll bring you details when we have them.