Pink Floyd sold his music rights to Sony Music for around $400 million (€362 million), sources told the British business newspaper Financial Times (FT) and entertainment magazine Variety.
The deal includes rights to recorded music, but not written songs. These rights remain in the hands of the authors themselves. Sony Music owns the group’s name, merchandise and all films and television series that will be made.
The English group, formed in 1965, had planned to sell these music rights for $500 million several years ago, according to the FT. The sale was reportedly significantly delayed due to infighting among its members. In particular, there were disagreements over tax arrangements. Roger Waters has had a difficult relationship with David Gilmour for years, which made the transaction difficult.
Since its inception, Pink Floyd has achieved major success with the album “Dark Side of the Moon” and songs like “Another Brick in the Wall”, “Wish You Were Here” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”.
In recent years, big artists like Neil Young, Sting and Bob Dylan have also sold all their music rights. They earned hundreds of millions of dollars as a result.
