Pink Floyd Get Huge Payout for Music Catalog, But It Could Have Been Bigger

Pink Floyd has finally reached a deal to sell both the band’s recorded-music and name-and-likeness rights to Sony Music, bringing to a close a negation process that has drawn out for decades.

Variety confirmed the news on Wednesday that the British progressive rock band had agreed to sell the rights to their music catalog for $400 million. The catalog and merchandising rights are widely regarded as being among the most valuable in contemporary music, featuring legendary albums including Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall; not to mention, the band’s iconic album artwork designed by the English art-design group Hipgnosis.

Until now, infighting among bandmembers—particularly between songwriters Roger Waters and David Gilmour—have prevented a deal from being hammered out. The estates of keyboardist Richard Wright and founding singer-songwriter Syd Barrett have also been involved, as well as the band’s third surviving member, drummer Nick Mason.

While the deal includes recorded-music and name-and-likeness rights, the latter of which also covers merchandise and theatrical rights, among others, the songwriting rights are still held by the individual writers.

At one point, there had been a reported asking price of $500 million for the band’s rights, with an apparent deal nearly reached back in 2022. However, amid increasing bizarre behavior from Waters, whose controversial outspoken political opinions about Israel and Ukraine have ostracized him from fans and cost him his solo record deal, it apparently became difficult to find a buyer. Variety notes that there is “little question” that the 81-year-old’s pubic remarks “devalued the catalog.”

Last year, fans walked out of a concert Waters had been putting on at the London Palladium after he arrived late and then began reading passages off of his laptop from his unpublished memoir instead of performing music. Now that he’s earned his payout, it remains to be seen whether he’ll continue to play shows.