Pink Floyd sell back catalog for $400million

Pink Floyd has agreed to sell their back catalog for $400 million in a deal with Sony.

According to Music Business Worldwide, the legendary rock veterans’ deal with the music giant is set to include the band’s recording catalog, neighboring rights, and name and likeness rights. However, the band’s publishing rights were not included in the deal.

Pink Floyd’s recorded music royalties are managed by two companies: Pink Floyd (1987) Limited and Pink Floyd Music Limited. The main difference between the two companies is that the latter collects revenue from music recorded before Roger Waters’ departure in 1985, and the former collects revenues from music recorded after.

As reported by Music Business Worldwide, the two companies generated a combined revenue of $50 million during their fiscal year ended June 30, 2023.

The news of Pink Floyd selling their back catalog comes after Sony acquired Queen’s catalog for $1.27 billion earlier this summer.

In a previous interview with Rolling Stone, the band’s former guitarist David Gilmour, said that it would be a “dream”, but not because of the financial gain the sale would bring.

He said he’d be most tempted to sell to “be rid of the decision-making and the arguments that are involved with keeping it going,” and added:

“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.”

The “mud bath” he refers to is the tension between him and Roger Waters, which has run for many years now. While it has gone on for decades, it came to a head again recently when Gilmour attacked Waters with claims of anti-Semitism.

During his interview with Rolling Stone, the guitarist did hint that he may dive further into the rocky relationship with Waters sometime in the future saying:

“One day there are things I will talk about, but this isn’t that day.”