A deal between disbanded rock group Pink Floyd to sell the rights to their catalog has finally closed after being in the works for years. In a deal that includes both recorded music and rights to the band's name and likeness, the surviving members of Floyd, as well as the estates of departed members, have closed a sale with Sony Music for some $400 million.
With so many artists, both young and old, opting to make such deals for their publishing rights, recorded masters, and other assets, why did Pink Floyd take so long to make a deal? The main reason seems to be antipathy between Roger Waters and David Gilmour, who were the primary songwriters for the band during much of its most successful and enduringly popular period, and who are basically unable to work together at all due to various personal and political differences.
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As songwriters, both Waters and Gilmour are retaining individual publishing rights to lyrics they wrote with the band, as publishing is reportedly not included in the sale despite the eye-popping $400 million price tag. But it does include merchandising, theatrical, and streaming revenue from the band's various albums and film projects, as well as their album cover art over the years. And in addition to Waters and Gilmour, other members of the band included in the deal are drummer Nick Mason and the estates of departed Floyd members Richard Wright and Syd Barrett.
Pink Floyd's album catalog includes some of the biggest sellers in the classic rock canon, like "Dark Side of the Moon," "The Wall," "Wish You Were Here," "Meddle," "Animals," and more. As for Sony, they're adding the Floyd catalog to their ever-growing stable of massive catalog sales, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Queen.
The band had reportedly been looking for such a buyer for years, with a price point of $500 million in mind, and a deal was said to be "close" back in 2022. But the tension between Waters and Gilmour caused the sale to stall, and Variety states that Waters's outspoken political statement in recent years contributed to Sony getting a relative bargain of $400 million (they also cost him a recent solo record deal).
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Gilmour expressed his desire to, at long last, close the Pink Floyd rights sale not just for the money but "to be rid of the decision-making and the arguments that are involved with keeping it going." Gilmour called that conclusion his "dream," and now it's finally come true.
