Click here to view this content.
Pink Floyd are closing in on a $500m (£380m) deal to sell its music rights to Sony despite a bitter feud between the rock band’s members.
The legendary rockers, who burst on to London’s psychedelic scene in the 1960s, first began discussions to sell the rights to their vast catalogue of songs in 2022 to cash in on the booming market for song rights.
The catalogue, which includes hits such as Another Brick in the Wall and Money, attracted interest from several potential buyers including rival record labels Warner Music and BMG and music rights firm Hipgnosis.
But the talks stalled amid a bitter dispute between band members, in particular guitarist David Gilmour and bassist Roger Waters who have since forged successful solo careers.
However, talks with Sony Music are understood to have resumed and the record label is close to agreeing a deal.
There has been an explosion in the music rights market in recent years, with high-profile artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber all selling their back catalogues in deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The trend highlights the value of music rights in the streaming era, as buyers look to squeeze more royalties from old songs by placing them in films and TV shows.
But the boom has slowed more recently as rising interest rates have driven up the cost of investments, raising doubts over whether Pink Floyd would be able to command a $500m price tag.
Sony, which secured a $700m funding boost for catalogue acquisitions from private equity giant Apollo in July, is in talks to buy Queen’s music rights for more than $1bn. It also snapped up Bruce Springsteen’s catalogue in a deal worth an estimated $550m.
Sony’s renewed interest, first reported by the Financial Times, points towards a truce in the feud between Mr Gilmour and Mr Waters that previously hampered negotiations.
Mr Gilmour and his wife, Polly Samson, who co-wrote lyrics to several Pink Floyd tracks, last year accused Mr Waters of being an “anti-Semitic, misogynistic, Putin apologist”. It followed an interview the bassist gave to a Berlin newspaper which compared Israel to Nazi Germany and described the US as the “main aggressor” in the Ukraine war.
In a further sign of the breakdown in relations, Mr Waters said he had rerecorded The Dark Side of the Moon – the band’s most successful album – cutting his bandmates out in the process.
Speaking to Rolling Stone last month, Mr Gilmour said it would be a “dream” to sell Pink Floyd’s back catalogue.