Rock icons DURAN DURAN signed an exclusive UK deal with independent sales and distribution company ESSENTIAL MUSIC, to release the full-length physical version of their 13th studio album ALL YOU NEED IS NOW. Featuring five brand new tracks, the extended LP comes after a critically-acclaimed nine song version of the record was released digitally, exclusively on iTunes, and hit the #1 spot on download charts in 15 countries (including the UK). This brings the band’s total record sales to more than 100 million throughout their three-decade career. Produced by Grammy-winner Mark Ronson, ALL YOU NEED IS NOW has been hailed as a return-to-roots homage to the band’s most celebrated musical panache.

The new deal, inked by the band today, will see ESSENTIAL MUSIC handling sales and distribution of the 14 track extended album in both digital and physical formats, across all retail and online outlets, including Amazon, HMV direct and Play.com. The release is being co-ordinated by LLM and its founder Joe Cokell, previously business development director at Cooking Vinyl Group and most recently former CEO of Sanctuary Records Group. The fresh incarnation of ALL YOU NEED IS NOW will be available in CD, vinyl and a special Deluxe Edition CD package, that will include a bonus song “Networker Nation” and a remix of the album’s title track by Youth Kills. A brand new special edition iTunes LP version will also hit the iTunes Store March 21st.

The original line up of SIMON LE BON, NICK RHODES, JOHN TAYLOR and ROGER TAYLOR performed to over 150,000 fans in 11 arena shows throughout the UK in May. The band showcased material from their new record, along with classic hits. The shows marked the band’s first European performances in support of their critically acclaimed new record and the start of a world tour that will last well into 2012. Produced by Grammy Award-winner Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse, Adele, Kaiser Chiefs, Lily Allen), and mixed by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Madonna, Bj√∂rk, No Doubt), the album features guest vocals/rap from longtime Duran Duran pal/collaborator Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters, and R&B/neo-soul superstar Kelis; while Owen Pallett of Arcade Fire fame contributes the album’s string arrangements.

Described by the band as a journey of rediscovery and creative liberation, their time in the studio with Mark Ronson nurtured a powerful chemistry that was sparked during the band’s rare live performance with Mark in Paris in 2008. In late Spring 2009, at Sphere Studios in London, this much-anticipated Duran/Ronson union flourished, as writing and recording began on an exciting new batch of songs, which Ronson has boldly stated is the “imaginary follow up to Rio that never was.”

In other Duran Duran news, the album title track, “All You Need Is Now”, will be featured in Dior’s ‘Be Iconic’ commercial campaign for the company’s new Addict lipstick, which launched in March of this year. Shot by acclaimed director JONAS AKERLUND, and starring super-model KATE MOSS, watch a sneak peek here: http://bit.ly/he0tQ8

Not only a band who can attract millions of fans to their live shows across five continents, Duran Duran is celebrated for single-handedly transforming music videos from a gimmicky marketing tool into one of the music industry’s most valued assets, taking the visual imperatives of the New Romantic movement to another level that defined the MTV generation. Duran Duran partnered with Genero.tv to give filmmakers around the world the chance to make music videos for all 9 songs on the iTunes-exclusive digital version of album.

Throughout their outstanding career Duran Duran has sold more than 80 million records, with 30 chart toppers in the UK, 18 American hit singles and a global presence that guarantees them huge concert audiences on five continents. Now a seemingly unstoppable force, with no fewer than five prestigious Lifetime Achievement Awards under their belts in the last few years alone (MTV Video Music Awards, the Brit Awards, the Ivor Novellos, Q Magazine and the Spanish Ondas), the four original members of Duran Duran are in a category with only a handful of other internationally acclaimed artists.

Duran Duran, a band with more era-defining songs to their name than most, have reconnected with the sounds, the textures, the melodies and the lyrical evocation that first propelled them to the top of the charts the world over. ALL YOU NEED IS NOW seems to have arrived fully-formed, its impact instantaneous, its brilliance undeniable. From the lush, moody “A Diamond In The Mind” and “Return To Now” interludes, to the explosive “Other People’s Lives,” to the dreamy vocal harmonies and tropical saunter of “Mediterranea”, and the classic Duran melody in “Too Bad You’re So Beautiful,” these newly added songs are a seamless addition to ALL YOU NEED IS NOW. Always at the forefront of the art scene, the band enlisted the talents of up-and-coming British art star Clunie Reid for the album artwork and packaging. Reid’s work has been recently shown at leading UK and US spaces, including the Saatchi Gallery, The Tate and the New Museum in New York. British fashion magazine POP’s creative team have provided art direction for the project.