Business of Madonna

American singer-songwriter and businesswoman Madonna received significant coverage by business journalism, becoming the first solo entrepreneur woman to grace a Forbes cover in 1990. She started some enterprises in her career, including Maverick and its subdivision Maverick Records, becoming one of the first women in music to establish an entertainment company and a record label. In its early years, Maverick Records became the highest-grossing artist-run label. Her entrepreneurial profile became visible as part of her public image in the first decades of her musical career, receiving praise, although it was the only role recognized by many of her critics.

Despite the ever-evolving nature of business, Madonna received immediate and retrospective interest from marketing, management and business communities. She was discussed in related themes, including capitalism, marketing strategies and consumerism. Called the "Material Girl", Madonna also epitomized the consumer ethos of the 1980s and beyond, for which she attained both cultural praise and criticisms. She was considered the ultimate in crass commercialism and the epitome of banal consumerism. In addition, Madonna has been continually considered by many critics as only a marketing product. Having been perceived as a role model regarding self-actualization and reinvention, she was credited with pioneering some brand management strategies, inspiring expressions coined in the 2000s such as the "Madonna effect" by business professor Oren Harari and the "Madonna-curve" used by a think tank author for NATO.

Commercially and financially, Madonna became for a short-span the highest-grossing woman in media and ended as the highest-earning female musician of the 20th century. Into the 21st century, she continued as the richest woman in music until being surpassed in 2019. She also became the first female artist to have earned more than $100 million in a single year (2009), then scored the highest-earnings for a female pop star (2013). Madonna has appeared as Forbes top-earning female musician a record 11 times, spanning four separate decades. Culturally, Madonna's figure impacted tourism of some places, including Belize's San Pedro Town thanks to "La Isla Bonita", and during the 2000s in Israel which led her to be praised due to the Second Intifada crisis.