In the latest seismic shift to rock the music industry, pop superstar Madonna is close to leaving Warner Music Group Corp.’s Warner Bros. Records for a virtually unprecedented $120 million deal with concert promotion giant Live Nation Inc., according to people familiar with the deal, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The 10-year pact with Beverly Hills-based Live Nation would give Madonna a rich mix of cash and stock in exchange for the rights to sell three studio albums, promote concert tours, sell merchandise and license her name. It’s the type of sweeping deal that record labels have sought, since they can no longer expect to thrive on music sales alone in a world in which CD sales are collapsing quickly and sales of digital downloads are not yet making up the difference.

The fact that a concert promoter like Live Nation landed the deal rather than a traditional record label like Warner Music is a sign of how quickly the landscape is shifting in the cratering music industry.

Traditionally, acts like Madonna would release their recordings through a major record label and then make separate deals for touring and merchandising with other companies.

Now, however, all the players in the music business — labels, concert promoters and even managers and ticketing companies — are eager to make broad deals that give them a piece of the whole pie by participating in revenue streams such as endorsement deals between artists and advertisers, as well as the sales of concert ticket and merchandise.

Madonna, at 49 years old, has managed to capitalize on those forces to make an extraordinarily rich deal. According to people briefed on the deal, the package includes a general advance of $17.5 million and advance payments for three albums of $50 to $60 million.

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