Madonna’s Multimedia Megabucks : Pop music: Her new deal with Time Warner, estimated at $60 million, will enable her to fund her own music publishing, film, television, book and merchandising opportunities.

Strike the pose.

The rich pop star pose, that is.

Madonna--whom Forbes last year listed as pop music’s wealthiest material girl--got even richer Monday when she signed an estimated $60-million multimedia pact with Time Warner.

The 7- to 11-year agreement guarantees the 33-year-old pop siren one of the most lucrative recording contracts in the business plus substantial funding for her own company to pursue music publishing, film, television, book and merchandising opportunities.

“Today’s agreement with Madonna opens up a unique new era of artistic autonomy and creative freedom within a larger global corporate structure,” said Time Warner Chairman and CEO Steven J. Ross in a statement released Monday.

Madonna’s contract is the latest in a flurry of megabucks superstar signings triggered last March by Janet Jackson’s estimated $40-million deal with Virgin Records.

Sony signed an estimated $60-million pact with Jackson’s brother Michael two weeks later and followed that with a $37-million agreement with Aerosmith in August. Motley Crue secured a reported $35-million deal with Elektra Entertainment in September and the Rolling Stones signed a $42-million deal in November with Virgin.

Other pop acts lining up to cash in on the mega-deal craze: Barbra Streisand, ZZ Top, Lionel Richie and Prince.

Representatives for Madonna and Time Warner declined to discuss details of the contract, which has been in the works since May.

But sources close to the talks said the entertainer is guaranteed a $5-million advance per album--up $2 million from her previous advance, plus a 20% royalty rate on every record she sells--up from the 18% per album she received under her previous Sire/Warner contract, which will reportedly be extended to include four more albums in addition to the three she already owes.

Reaction in music industry circles to the size of Madonna’s deal Monday was mostly positive.

Joe Smith, president and CEO of Capitol-EMI Music Inc., said on Monday, “There’s never been anybody quite like her before. Frankly, I would have loved to have had the opportunity to cut the same deal with her.”

Entertainment mogul David Geffen added: “This is a risk-free deal for Time Warner. They can’t lose on Madonna. Just look at what this woman has invented so far. She’s a brilliant figment of her own imagination.

“As a recording artist, Madonna is almost certain to continue selling millions of records for many years to come. But the big advances and the high royalty rate aren’t the most important thing here. The real value of this deal is the amount of money that’s been committed to things outside of records.”

Under the new agreement, Time Warner also will spend about $5 million a year to underwrite operating expenses for Madonna’s new entertainment company--a 50-50 partnership venture named Maverick that will include a record label, a music publishing company and an office with television, film, book and merchandising divisions.

Madonna has been given full authority to sign acts on the new record label and is reportedly aggressively courting several Los Angeles bands to join Maverick. Her own next album--slated to hit the stores this fall--will be the first record released on the new label as part of the Sire/Warner deal.

One of the most novel components of the deal, insiders said, is Time Warner’s apparent commitment to Madonna’s future on television. The company has reportedly agreed to put up more than $2 million for two upcoming HBO concert specials--the first of which will be a live concert.

Madonna also has been given the right to pitch a variety of non-music-based programs to Time Warner-controlled HBO--including TV movie projects such as the film biography of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, which she is currently developing.

If Warner agrees to develop a script for a film featuring Madonna, she could reportedly be paid as much as a $2-million advance against a net profit percentage (at most 10% of the studio of the gross) of the profits for each movie in which she stars.

The Time Warner deal also includes book, publishing and merchandising provisions that insiders speculate could pay the star as much as a 40% royalty rate on all Madonna-sanctioned products.

Her first book project, due out in the fall, will be a limited-edition coffee-table collection of erotica featuring poems, essays and nude photos of Madonna.

Madonna already oversees a media empire that includes several companies and was listed last fall as the nation’s fourth highest-paid entertainer, according to Forbes magazine, which estimated her earnings at $63 million in 1990 and 1991. Her eight-album catalogue has sold more than 26 million units in the United States alone.

“If you’ve got to spend $60 million on a multimedia deal,” Capitol/EMI’s Smith said Monday, “Madonna is about as good a bet as there is anywhere in the world to put your money on. Few artists carry with them the potential to sell so many records or videos or motion picture properties around the planet. This woman is adored and imitated by the public and by other artists everywhere in the world.”

Superstar Recording Contracts

Artists who have signed new contracts within the past 12 months, and the compensation they received.

ARTIST LABEL ALBUMS MOVIE DEAL Madonna Time Warner 7 Yes (plus TV) Michael Jackson Sony Music 6 Yes Rolling Stones Virgin 3 + post-’70s None catalogue Janet Jackson Virgin 3 None Aerosmith Sony Music 4 None Motley Crue Elektra 5 None

ARTIST MERCHANDISING OTHER PERKS ESTIMATED TOTAL Madonna Yes Her own label $60 million + 50% of profits Michael Jackson Yes Video software, $60 million his own label + 50% of profits Rolling Stones None None $43 million Janet Jackson None None $40 million Aerosmith None None $37 million Motley Crue None None $35 million