Pink Floyd’s ‘sell music rights’ for a colossal amount

Rock group are said to have handed over their name-and-likeness rights for reported deal

The iconic British rock band Pink Floyd have reportedly sold their music rights, as well as their name-and-likeness rights for approximately $400m (£304m) to Sony.

Variety reports that the deal consists of recorded music rights but not songwriting and also included merchandise and theatrical rights.

The group’s iconic artwork, mostly created by the British design company Hipgnosis, which adorned albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals, is also said to be part of the deal.

If a deal has been finalised it will follow in the footsteps of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan who have both sold their music to Sony in recent year.

The Financial Times first reported that a deal for Pink Floyd’s music had been struck earlier this week but no official statement by Sony or the band has yet to be released.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in August, David Gilmour was asked about the group’s catalogue being sold and said “it’s something that is still in discussion, yeah.”

He added that he wanted to be “rid of the decision making and the arguments that are involved with keeping it going is my dream If things were different” and that “not interested in that from a financial standpoint” but from “getting out of the mud bath that it has been for quite a while”.

Variety describes the deal as “one of the largest of many in recent years” but comes amid bitter infighting between the group’s two key members, Gilmour and Roger Waters.

Although the two have been at loggerheads for years, the feud intensified in 2023, when Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson accused Waters of being “antisemitic to your rotten core” in a social media spat, and also branded him a “Putin apologist” after he suggested in an interview that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “probably the most provoked invasion ever”.

Waters said that he was “aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson which he refutes entirely”.

In an interview with The Independent in September, Gilmour, who recently released a new solo album Luck and Strange, was asked if there might ever be a reunion between the pair, the guitarist responded with an “unequivocal no”.

He did, however, suggest he hadn’t completely ruled out a partial reunion with drummer Nick Mason.

(Crollalanza/Shutterstock)

In 2023, Waters released a stripped-back “redux” version of The Dark Side of the Moon to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The 81-year-old reinterpreted the album with his touring partner Gus Seyffert, a collaborator of artists including Beck and Michael Kiwanuka.

Pink Floyd’s reps and Sony Music have been contacted for comment.