Pink Floyd Reportedly Sold Their Catalog to Sony for $400M
Pink Floyd has reportedly sold their legendary catalog to Sony to the tune of $400 million.
Reports of the sale come from the Financial Times, which also reports, “The terms also include the band name and the artists’ ‘likeness,’ one person added, which means that the label will have the rights to merchandise and spin-offs such as movies and TV series.” This sale reportedly includes the sale of the recorded rights, not the songwriting rights, to Pink Floyds songs.
The rumored sale of the Pink Floyd catalog was first reported by Bloomberg back in May 2022. The outlet said, “Representatives for the band have reached out to potential buyers, according to three people familiar with the matter who asked to not be identified because the discussions are private. The process began in the last few days, and it’s too early to know what the outcome will be, they said. Representatives of the band didn’t respond to requests for comment.”
The sale negotiations hit a bit of a snag in October 2022. At that time, Variety reported that at least one potential buyer of the Pink Floyd catalog pulled out of a deal due to a then-recent interview with Rolling Stone by Waters. Among Waters’ many incendiary comments, he said he believes he’s on a “Kill List” that is supported by the government of Ukraine.
Last month, Variety reported that Sony Music was close to a deal to purchase the Pink Floyd catalog for $500 million.
Roger Waters vs. David Gilmour
Waters and Gilmour have exchanged numerous verbal attacks at each other in recent years. In fact, this feud is what made Gilmour more compelled to sell the Pink Floyd catalog now than ever before.
Gilmour told Rolling Stone in a recent interview that he wants “to be rid” of the catalog, but not for financial reasons. He notes, “I’m only interested in it from getting out of the mud bath that it has been for quite a while.” While he doesn’t mention Waters by name, it’s not a reach to assume that the sale of the Pink Floyd catalog means Gilmour would be done with Waters on a professional level.
Despite the bitter feud, Gilmore doesn’t regret it. He talked about the feud last month in an interview with MOJO. Specifically, he talked about a tweet his wife and collaborator, Polly Samson, shared in February 2023. Samson wrote, “Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core. Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.”
Gilmour told MOJO, “That tweet was boiling up. It had to come out — and I have no regrets about it. No regrets whatsoever.”
Samson’s tweet was in response to an interview Waters did with German newspaper Berliner Zeitung. Waters, himself, shared the translated interview on his official website. The entire interview is worth reading. However, among his most notable remarks, Waters defends Russian President Vladimir Putin and says people are “brainwashed” into seeing him as the aggressor in the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Additionally, he claims there’s Nazism in Ukraine and that “Israelis are committing genocide.” (At the time of Waters’ comments, the Israel-Hamas war hadn’t begun.)