The legendary English band Pink Floyd, renowned for transforming psychedelic and progressive rock, has finally sold their recorded music rights and name-and-likeness rights for approximately $400 million. Reportedly, the band has sold their music rights to Sony Music.
This deal represents one of the largest in a series of high-profile transactions in recent years and has reportedly been finalised after decades of internal conflicts and bitter exchanges among the band members, particularly between chief songwriters Roger Waters and David Gilmour.
Drummer Nick Mason and the estates of keyboardist Richard Wright and founding singer-songwriter Roger “Syd” Barrett are also involved.
The agreement covers name-and-likeness rights (which include merchandising, theatrical, and similar rights) as well as recorded-music rights (but not songwriting, which is controlled by the individual writers). Despite Pink Floyd’s well-known anonymity, their albums likely contain most, if not all, of the iconic artwork created by British firm Hipgnosis.
With hits including Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Animals, Meddle, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, More, and more, the Pink Floyd recorded music collection is among the most valuable in contemporary music from a financial standpoint.
With support from investment groups like Eldridge Industries, Sony has spent over a billion dollars purchasing catalogues from Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Queen’s non-North American rights in recent years. The company has never made a formal statement on the deals.
The group was on the verge of a deal in 2022, but the bitter infighting among the band members—mainly over main songwriter Roger Waters’ controversial political statements against Israel and Ukraine and in favour of Russia—had complicated the deal tremendously and turned off many potential suitors. The catalogue had been up for grabs for several years, with a reported asking price of $500 million.
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