AAAAAAAAAH! What’s that horrible noise? Could it be the death squeals of the music industry? No, it’s just Madonna’s latest song.

Last week Madge, 49, never one to let a trend pass without grasping its coat-tails, became the latest, and biggest, name to give a leading music label a good kicking.

The singer has dropped Warner Music after a 25-year marriage. It seems so long ago, she was (like) a virgin when they met. Now the material girl is taking up with Live Nation, a Beverly Hills concert promoter 44 years her junior. And why not? The dowry is a massive $120m (about ¤85m).

The deal gives Live Nation a share of Madonna’s merchandising as well as concert tours and record sales. CD sales alone just don’t cut it these days.

Warner argues it’s no big deal. It wasn’t going to pay that sort of money, even for Madonna. Others have overpaid for Mariah Carey and Bruce Springsteen. Wall Street seemed nonplussed. After the news broke Live Nation’s shares dipped a bit. Warner’s were flat.

The press coverage was — unsurprisingly — huge. And for good reason. Madge is on to something. As usual she’s not the trend starter — pioneers such as Prince have blazed the trail before her — but you can bet others will follow. It was a worrying week for the music industry. Radiohead (formerly an EMI band) put out their latest album on their own, asking fans to pay what they thought it was worth.

Live Nation is going to have to work Madge pretty hard to get its money back. Warner may genuinely not be shedding many tears after losing her. But that doesn’t mean its executives aren’t up all night crying buckets over the future of their industry.

In some ways, the music firms are in a position similar to Hollywood’s studios during their “Golden Age”. Hollywood’s studios then ran everything from the cinema to promotion and production and “owned” various stars.

The system collapsed after the government brought an antitrust case against “block booking”, selling multiple films to one cinema, usually one good one and a host of B-grade tosh.

The then sane Howard Hughes was the first to make a deal and split his movie- making RKO Pictures, which made Citizen Kane, from its cinemas, RKO Theatres. The move effectively brought the curtain down on the studio system and left stars, and their agents, to make their own deals.

Music stars, too, have usually signed up to one label. If they break their contract, it gets nasty and ends in court, just ask Prince and George Michael. The former once changed his name to a symbol and performed with SLAVE written on his cheek during a dispute with Warner.

Well, the days of “slavery” are over for acts such as Prince and Madonna, who can guarantee sellout shows across the globe even if their records don’t sell in the quantities they used to. Maybe the same will happen with U2 and the Rolling Stones. But that’s about it. There aren’t that many bands, or acts, that have Madonna’s star power.

For the rest, music companies will still play the leading role in promoting new acts. Amy Winehouse wouldn’t be able to afford rehab without EMI. But that doesn’t mean everyone in the music industry is going to survive this shakeout.

Look at Hughes’s RKO, long gone the way of its most famous star, King Kong.

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