Of all the multi-million dollar deals left in the music catalog, the rights to Pink Floyd’s recordings, name and likeness have been the most controversial. The catalog had been on the market for several years with an asking price of $500 million, and the group was close to reaching a deal in 2022, but bitter internal strife among the band members—primarily over lead songwriter Roger Waters’ controversial political statements against Israel and Ukraine, and in favor of Russia—severely complicated the deal and scared off a number of suitors.
However, reports and diverse Sources say Sony Music, which has spent more than $1 billion on the Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan catalogs and Queen's rights outside North America in the past few years (backed by investment firms such as Eldridge Industries), is in “advanced” talks to acquire the group's recorded music rights for a price tag of between $400 million and $500 million.
While details of the deal are unclear — and representatives for the group and Sony declined or did not respond to requests for comment — diverseIf the price is at the high end, as the Financial Times reported, it means that Waters' comments had little effect on the album's price; if it is at the low end, as Music Business Worldwide reported, it means he reduced the value of the catalogue by as much as 20%.
Other potential suitors were said to be unhappy with the catalogue's annual profits.
Leading band members Waters and David Gilmore (pictured above, left and right, respectively, in the early 1970s) have been feuding for decades, trading public barbs while recently trying to find enough common ground to strike a deal.
Sony has not officially confirmed its catalog deals, though the aforementioned deals have either been widely reported by insiders or later included in earnings reports. However, if news of the deal comes to light, the company is likely to face a storm of criticism for paying such a large sum for Waters, who has vehemently denied being anti-Semitic but has been quite vocal about his harsh criticism of the governments of Israel, Ukraine and the United States, and his strong statements in support of Russia and Vladimir Putin.
Among other inflammatory remarks, Waters compared Israel to Nazi Germany and said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “not unjustified.” (Waters’s 2022 concerts in Poland were canceled over his comments about neighboring Ukraine.) “You are an anti-Semite to the core,” said Gielnor’s wife, a novelist. Polly Samson Waters said on Twitter,“Every word is clearly true,” Gilnor added, amid other colorful comments. Waters refuted their comments, calling them “seditious and wildly inaccurate.”
The companies that were close to striking a deal with the group in 2022 — said to be Hipgnosis, Warner Music and BMG — have all since undergone leadership changes (and earlier this year, BMG dropped Waters from its roster as a solo artist). Waters’ comments were a major factor in the deals collapsing, although a variety of other factors — including rising interest rates, tax issues and the falling value of the pound — also played a role.
Sources said diverse Early last year, the band declared the deal “essentially dead” because the surviving members “can't get along,” though sources close to the band insisted that wasn't the case.
“You can say the deal is no longer ‘active’, but at the same time it is still on the table,” one source said. “It’s a strange situation!”
On a purely commercial level, Pink Floyd’s catalog of recorded music, not to mention merchandising rights, is one of the most valuable in contemporary music, with classic albums like “Dark Side of the Moon,” “The Wall,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Animals,” “Middle,” “Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” “More,” and more. After sales of the catalogs of Dylan, Springsteen (both for about $600 million), Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, James Brown (each in the low nine figures), and many others, it is one of the most lucrative and attractive on the market. (The potential deal with Pink Floyd does not include song publishing.) Indeed, the core members—Waters, Nick Mason, David Gilnor, and the estate of the late keyboardist Rick Wright—are all in their early 80s or late 70s, and are presumably thinking about their estates.
Among them is Mason, who was caught in the middle of this dispute, and who said in 2018: “It is really disappointing that these old gentlemen are still at odds.”
