Madonna The Ultimate Business Woman

After a long and successful recording deal with Warner Bros., Madonna is severing ties with her record label and signing a landmark 120-million-dollar deal with concert promoter Live Nation.

She has been recording with Warner since she was 24, when her self-titled album debuted. Now, at age 49, she's still making pop records and Live Nation is banking on 10 more years.

As the traditional music recording model suffers from the general creation of the Internet and it's spawns forming new ways to entertain us, they are losing their hold on both the consumer and the artists. Artists are freeing themselves from, what was once, a much needed tool for recording and promotion. Now artists can record themselves without becoming slaves to their own talent.

A spin off of Clear Channel, Live Nation has built a sharp business model providing venue, artist management and promotion. The Wallstreet Journel reported, after first learning of Live Nation's offer to Madonna, Warner Music sought to retain her by offering her a similar arrangement, partnering with IAC (the parent of TicketMaster) to attempt a similar counter offer.

Madonna has always been a trend-setter, so we expect to hear about many other artists jumping the sinking ships of the recording industry and making new deals with artist-friendly companies, like Live Nation.