Pink Floyd’s proposed $500 million sale The rights to their iconic five-decade, multi-platinum recorded-music catalog are “basically dead” because the surviving bandmembers “just can’t get along,” four sources close to the situation tell Diversity However, sources close to the band say that is not the case.
“You can say the deal is no longer ‘active’,” says one of the four sources. “But at the same time, it’s still on the table. It’s a weird situation!”
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It equates to a long-running and controversial proposed deal that sees Roger Waters and David Gilmour, two longtime feuding principals of one of the most critically and financially successful acts of the rock era, Taking public potshots at each other. Also trying to find enough common ground to close a deal that sources say could reach half a billion dollars.
Complicating matters further, Waters is arguably undermining the catalog’s value. Israel is repeatedly making shocking statements about Ukraine and other political matters. His comments have been so strident that a concert in Germany on his ongoing “This Is Not a Drill” tour was recently canceled due to “the former Pink Floyd frontman’s persistent anti-Israel behavior, which has been described as the most widely spread Anti-Semitism in the world,” according to a Google translation of statement from the city of frankfurt,
Among several other incendiary statements, Waters has compared Israel to Nazi Germany and said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “not unprovoked”. (The last time Waters had concerts in Poland canceled over his comments about neighboring Ukraine.) Gilmour’s wife, the novelist, “You are an anti-Semite to your rotten core.” Polly Samson told Waters on Twitter, among other colorful comments; “Every word is plainly true,” said Gilmour. Waters dismissed his comments as “inflammatory and wildly wrong”.
while representatives of the long-running British group have never officially Said catalog was for sale, involving multiple parties financial Times, confirmed that the band members were seeking up to $500 million for the recorded-music catalog and other assets. However, a variety of factors – including rising interest rates, tax issues, the sinking value of the British pound and not least Waters’ comments – have slowed the process.
But ultimately, sources say the inability of the principals — which also includes drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright and the estates of original singer-songwriter Syd Barrett — to work together has been the primary obstacle to closing a deal. who was moving forward. The momentum last declined but has stalled for several months.
“It’s not just that it’s personal — those things extend to business,” another source tells SELF. Diversity. “Some were certain [long-term band associates] that one member felt they were too close to another member, so they had to spend weeks finding someone else they could all agree on, such conditions.
Caught in the middle is Mason, who said in 2018, “It’s really disappointing that these elderly gentlemen are still lumberjacks.”
A representative for the group did not immediately respond. DiversityRequest for comment.
The members of Pink Floyd, which first formed in 1965, have always had a strained personal relationship, even as they went on to become one of the most commercially successful rock acts in history. The group initially split in 1983 after Waters had rapidly become the band’s principal songwriter in the preceding decade (Wright had left a few years earlier). In the mid-’80s Gilmour rejoined the band under the name Pink Floyd without Waters, touring stadiums and releasing several albums, while Waters pursued a solo career and played much smaller venues.
For decades the band members have argued about virtually everything, often in public. The recent release of a remastered version of the group’s 1977 album “Animals” was held up for months by a disagreement about Waters’ liner notes, which he eventually published on his website along with a scathing note about the other members. and two separate 50th anniversaries version from their landmark 1973 album “Dark Side of the Moon”. On the way are: a remastered version from the band’s camp, and a newly recorded version from Waters that did not include his former bandmates. (Waters told Wire Last month, “I wrote ‘Dark Side of the Moon.'” Let’s get rid of this ‘we’ nonsense! Of course we were a band, we were four, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it. However, he is the sole author of only three of the 10 songs on the album, which may complicate his plans to release a new version.)
Yet the band was always discerning about the value of the catalog and far-sighted about its ownership: on a purely commercial level, the Pink Floyd recorded-music catalogue, not to mention its merchandising rights, is among the most valuable in contemporary music. There is one. , It includes classic album hits like “The Wall,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Medal,” “Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” “More” and more. (The publication of the song is not included in the potential Pink Floyd deal.) And following catalog sales by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen—both for a total of $600 million—Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, James Brown (all of the following nine figures around) and many others, making it one of the most attractive and desirable known on the market.
Although the group participated in the boxed-set craze of the 1990s, they kept most of the giant in their vaults until they acquired the rights to the catalog (likely in a contract renegotiation), and made a grand debut in 2016. Archival material in quantity kept back. re-release campaign consisting of dozens of unreleased songs, alternate versions, live recordings and videos. The first of these, “The Early Years 1965–1972,” was released in 2016 in formats ranging from a 2-CD set to a massive 33-disc, $699 deluxe edition. Although many expected the next set to feature the band’s commercial peak years of 1973–80—including “Dark Side of the Moon,” Wish You Were Here, “Animals” and “The Wall”—the group instead released a collection of less-popular material from the 90s. Why? Because the catalog with much of that peak-era material still in the vault is too valuable to enable the buyer to release it; Even the upcoming “Dark Side” anniversary re-release does not contain previously unreleased material.
however, Waters’ recent comments That gave pause to some potential buyers – which the FT said included Sony Music, Warner Music, BMG, Primary Wave and Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital – and arguably had a negative impact on the value of the catalogue. At least one potential buyer has been known to be put off because of them.
Of course, it’s possible that the band members, all of whom are in their late 70s, and their mentors have decided to bide their time for a while, let the storm surrounding Waters’ comments subside, and Try again in a few years. After all, he has waited so long.
“This is one of the most valuable music catalogs of the last 50 years,” concluded a source. “Will it be worth the same amount in two or five years — or even more? Sure. They can wait.
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