Famous rock band Pink Floyd has sold their music catalog to Sony Music, including albums like Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall and Wish You Were Here for $400 million. The band’s name and likeness were included in the deal as well. Consequence details how they’ve sold their “recorded music rights, but not their publishing.” The selling of their name and likeness also gives “the label rights to merch and potential movie and TV spinoffs.”
The band has been in talks of selling their catalog since 2022, as they were in the negotiations of a deal for $500 million with Sony Music and deals with other companies including Warner Music, but Roger Waters, singer for Pink Floyd, comments on his opposition towards Israel put a hold on potential deals. David Gilmour, guitarist and singer for the band, revealed in a Rolling Stone interview his interest in selling the catalog. “To be rid of the decision-making and the arguments that are involved with keeping it going is my dream,” he stated. “I am not interested in that from a financial standpoint. I’m only interested in it from getting out of the mud bath that it has been for quite a while.”
Sony Music is known for its purchases of legendary musical artists, acquiring, “Queen’s catalog and likeness rights” for around $1.27 billion. In recent news, Gilmour joined the rock band Body Count in a different take on Pink Floyd’s song “Completely Numb”. Gilmour is also on tour for his new album Luck and Strange.