The deal is done: Pink Floyd agreed this week to sell their recorded music catalog to Sony Music in a deal worth around $400 million, sources said.

The transaction is understood to include Floyd’s recording catalog as well as related rights and “name and likeness rights.” It does not include publishing rights.

The news was first reported today (October 1) by the Financial Times.

The news comes after Sony reportedly completed the acquisition of a set of career-spanning rights to another legendary band, Queen, for over $1 billion earlier this year.

This Queen deal included publishing rights, “name and likeness rights,” and rights to recorded music outside of North America.

As MBW announced in September, recorded music royalties for Pink Floyd’s music currently go to two UK companies: Pink Floyd (1987) Limited And Pink Floyd Music Limited.

The former appears to have been collecting income for the band’s music catalog following the departure of Roger Waters in 1985; The latter collects income for music recorded before Waters’ departure.

Together, these two companies generated sales of £40.399 million during its fiscal year ended June 30, 2023. That’s roughly equivalent USD 50 million dollars.

Pink Floyd’s catalog was first put up for sale in 2022, when MBW sources (correctly) suggested that the deal would include recorded music rights and “name and likeness rights,” but not music publishing rights.

At the time, reports suggested that the catalog had piqued the interest of potential buyers Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, BMG, Hipgnosis, Concord, primary shaftand private equity group Blackstone.

In July, Apollo Global Management confirmed that it was the lead investor in a $700 million “Capital solution” for Sony Music Group The aim is to finance investments in the music industry.

Sony has partnered with Debt capital for catalog investments.

Sony’s ~$550 million The acquisition of Bruce Springsteen’s publishing and recording catalog in 2021 was co-financed (on the publishing side) by Eldridge Industries.Music business worldwide