Madonna Signs With Interscope

Story by Billboard Magazine
Written by Jem Aswad and Ray Waddell

Madonna has signed with Interscope, a source close to the situation confirmed to Billboard.biz Wednesday morning.

According to a report in the New York Post, the singer will continue the 10-year multi-rights deal with Live Nation -- said to be worth more as much as $100 million -- that she signed in 2007, but has inked a three-album pact with Interscope at a base of $1 million per album. Billboard.biz's source could not confirm the terms of the deal at press time but said the report sounded right.

Madonna left Warner Bros., her label home of 25 years, after the release of her 2008 album "Hard Candy." Her subsequent Live Nation-produced "Sticky & Sweet" tour grossed $408 million worldwide, according to Billboard Boxscore, highest ever for a female artist.

While she is signed with Live Nation, the company's CEO Irving Azoff reiterated to Billboard in February that it would partner with some other entity in releasing Madonna's next album. Executives at the firm have stated repeatedly that they don't intend to enter the record business full-tilt.

"Live Nation, prior to the merger, entered into some of these all-rights deals, so there are certain artists, Madonna being one of them, that there is a recorded music strategy," Azoff said. "Once she gets the album recorded, we'll sit down with her and her manager Guy Oseary and figure out what's best for the record. It has to start with the music."

Azoff said Madonna would begin recording the album as soon as she finished work on her directing debut, "W.E.," a look at the scandalous love affair between Wallis Simpson and Britain's King Edward VIII, which is out early next year. A rough version of a ballad called " Masterpiece," reportedly from the film and her forthcoming album, leaked last week.

Also last week, it was confirmed that Madonna will be performing during halftime at the Super Bowl on February 5 in Indianapolis.

A different song, "Give Me All Your Love," leaked last month and Madonna teased the crowd about it during a Smirnoff event in New York last month, but stopped short of playing it. Last week, M.I.A. let it slip that she, Madonna and Nicki Minaj were working on a new song together.