NEW YORK — The music industry was agog Wednesday night over reports that Virgin Records had offered Mariah Carey, the chanteuse who soared to the top of international charts in the 1990s, as much as $50 million to walk away from the label and never come back.

If concluded, the deal would be unprecedented in a business that is already being buffeted by falling sales and the effects of a weakening economy. It would also underscore the sudden reversal of Carey’s once stratospheric singing career.

In return for making the pay-off, Virgin Records, which is owned by the music company EMI, would be free to tear up a contract it signed with Carey when it won the singer from the Sony music stable in April last year. Almost from that day, she has been in a professional nosedive. Details of the negotiations are being closely guarded.

The original contract signed by Carey with Virgin is believed to have involved a total payment of $80 million in exchange for a commitment to deliver four albums. Carey’s first album for Virgin, called Glitter, was released amid high expectations in September but sold a disappointing two million copies worldwide. The album was tied to a film of the same name, which featured Carey in her first acting role and also did very poorly with audiences.

Meanwhile, the star suffered miserable publicity in the summer when she was rushed to hospital, apparently afflicted by physical and mental exhaustion. She had relapses in September and was constrained from doing promotional work for the album that Virgin had been hoping for.

According to some reports, EMI spent roughly $10 million trying to boost the Glitter album. In addition to paying the singer $20 million in advance for each of the promised albums, the label committed itself to providing a $6-million fund for video productions.

Carey, whose 1993 album, Music Box, sold more than 20 million copies, left Sony Music Entertainment reportedly because she had become unhappy there. Tommy Mottola, the head of Sony Music, is her former husband of nearly five years. She is not the only singing star who suffered unexpected disappointment in 2001. The year was similarly duff for new records released by Macy Gray and the band REM.