Jeff Leeds of The New York Times reports: Less than eight months after issuing a stinging, public vote of no-confidence in its record company, Warner Music Group, the multiplatinum rap-rock act LINKIN PARK has signed a lucrative new pact with the recording giant. The six-member Los Angeles band and its management company, The Firm, last week reached a deal with Warner calling for an estimated $15 million advance for the group's next album, executives involved in the contract negotiations said. The pact provides the company's Warner Brothers Records unit with an option for up to five more albums from the band, one more than had been called for in their original deal.

Warner also agreed to increase the musicians' royalty rate to an estimated 20 percent. The next LINKIN PARK CD, still untitled, is expected to be released as early as mid-2006.

The deal emerged from intense talks after LINKIN PARK, days before an initial public stock offering by Warner in May, demanded to be released from its contract. In a public statement, the musicians said cost cuts made before the stock sale had rendered the corporation too weak to promote the band's recordings properly. The offering followed private investors' $2.6 billion purchase of the company from its former corporate parent, Time Warner.

Read the entire article at NYTimes.com.