The Mirror on Madonna, Warners and Live Nation
The Mirror’s showbiz editor Sean Hamilton gets back on the rumours about Madonna ending her 25-year deal with Warner Music reporting on “Material Girl’s £50m to ditch record company”.
Here’s what he wrote on the Sunday Mirror today:
“Madonna is planning to dump her record company because she makes more money performing live.
The singer is close to signing a £50million contract with her tour promoters Live Nation – to cover her concert and her record releases.
She is expected to walk away from Warner Music, who have released all her singles and albums throughout her 25-year career.
The new arrangement will send another shockwave through the major record labels who keep losing big names to other businesses.
A senior music industry figure explained: “This is a sign of the times. At this stage in her career Madonna realises she stands to make more money from touring – £130million on her last tour – than releasing records. So she wants to go with a company that can look after both rather than being tied to a record company.”
The source added: “With the internet, you don’t need to be a record company to release records any more. The era of the big record labels controlling artists’ careers is coming to an end.”
Madonna, 49, follows Paul McCartney and Prince who have both walked away from their record labels. Macca quit his long-term label EMI last year to sign with Starbucks, who are selling his new album Memory Almost Full in their coffee shops.
And Prince decided to give away copies of his current album free with every ticket he sold for his recent 21 dates at London’s O2 Dome.
Madonna is worth an estimated £160million. She has sold 175million albums and 75million singles worldwide. Her first No1 was Into The Groove in 1985, her last was Sorry in 2006. Her last tour, Confessions, was in 2006.
From sundaymirror.co.uk.