The Rock Band That Defined Psychedelic Music Sells Entire Song Rights To Sony For Mega Millions
Pink Floyd has agreed to sell the right to their recorded music, name, and likeness to Sony Music for $400 million after several years of negotiations.
Rights to Pink Floyd’s songwriting legacy will stay with the individual bandmembers and were not included in the sale to Sony, but merchandise, film, and theater rights were all part of the deal.
Infighting among the band and the estates of some deceased members are blamed for the amount of time the deal took to develop.
Pink Floyd And Sony
Originally priced at $500 million, Pink Floyd almost got to a deal with Sony in 2022 before complaints about Roger Waters’ political views blasted it apart.
Bandmates were exhausted by the controversy and agreed to a deal partly so that they wouldn’t need to handle the business side of their music careers as a unit anymore.
The friction likely pushed the band members to take the lower price when offered.
A Lower Sale Price?
While Waters’ political views were widely blamed for the lower sale price of the Pink Floyd catalog to Sony, other factors, including the declining value of the British Pound and sky-high interest rates, were definitely a factor.
Leadership changes at the major stakeholding companies presiding over the deal also had an influence on the decline in price and the first deal from 2022 falling apart.
Whatever the reasons were for the final price, industry experts agree that Sony got a deal on the music catalog, which is one of the most valuable today.
Sony Catalog Growing
Acquiring the rights to Pink Floyd’s recorded music, Sony has added another feather in their cap of vintage music catalogs.
Sony has been on a vintage music buying spree over the last few years, acquiring the catalogs of Queen, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen under its umbrella and building a vintage music empire.
The deal between Pink Floyd and Sony will allow licensing of the whole catalog as well as movie, TV, and theatrical deals on their work, with Sony cashing in on streaming service income and merchandising.
Popular On The Vintage Market
The work of Pink Floyd has been wildly popular, making the deal with Sony at $400 million a bit of a concession on the part of the band.
Pink Floyd has had a series of reissues of its albums subsequent to its original recorded catalog and has sold over 250 million records since 1965, making it one of the best-selling musical acts of all time.
Their psychedelic style was an early example of the genre, putting them on the map of musical innovators and making them a very desirable asset on the vintage market today.
Across The Finish Line
Stakeholders in the deal between Pink Floyd and Sony Music include David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Nick Mason, along with the estates of Richard Wright and Roger Barret.
Having finally worked out a deal that was acceptable to all parties, including the price of the sale and its tax structure, they were able to get it across the finish line earlier this week.
The surviving Pink Floyd bandmembers and Sony declined to comment on the terms of the deal.
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