Pink Floyd Sells Music and Likeness Rights to Sony for $400 Million

Pink Floyd has sold the rights to their recorded music, name and likeness to Sony for $400 million. Somewhere, David Gilmour is apparently relieved.

Financial Times and Digital Music News confirmed the long-gestating deal. Expect Pink Floyd songs to begin appearing more often through licensing agreements in movies, TV shows, gaming and other media.

Pink Floyd was among the last big-name classic rock acts to sell, following other failed attempts to forge an agreement between long-feuding bandmates Gilmour and Roger Waters. One sticking point was reportedly the deal's tax structure. Bidders were said to include Warner Music, Hipgnosis and BMG.

READ MORE: Ranking Every Pink Floyd Live Album

In the meantime, Gilmour openly admitted that he wanted to sell. "To be rid of the decision-making and the arguments that are involved with keeping it going is my dream," Gilmour said. "If things were different ... and I am not interested in that from a financial standpoint. I'm only interested in it from getting out of the mud bath that it has been for quite a while."

Nick Mason is the band's only other living former core member, after the deaths of Syd Barrett and then Richard Wright. Mason has since launched an offshoot band called Saucerful of Secrets that focused on Pink Floyd's early material.

Neither Pink Floyd nor Sony has officially confirmed the new deal. Gilmour also declined to comment to the Financial Times, but has recently waved off more questions about his fractured relationship with Waters. "Do you know what decade of my life I was in when Roger left our pop group?" he asked. "My 30s. I am now 78. Where's the relevance?"

Sony might have paid more but this agreement reportedly includes only Pink Floyd's recorded rights and not the songwriting rights. Sony has certainly shown an ability to up the ante, acquiring rights to the Queen catalog for more than $1 billion.

They got a boost in July when the private equity giant Apollo agreed to back Sony with up to $700 million for more music deals. Rights to the catalogs of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan also belong to Sony.

Beach Boys

How dysfunctional are the Beach Boys? Well, let us count the ways: First, the group was forced to contend with their controlling manager Murry Wilson, father to Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, and uncle to Mike Love. Then a rift slowly developed between Love and resident genius Brian, as Wilson endured declining mental health. Years later, Brian miraculously rejoined the other surviving Beach Boys for a 2012 LP and tour after decades of personal and professional recriminations, uncountable lineups, the passing of both Dennis and Carl, but their reunion was unceremoniously cut short when Mike (who by now owns the Beach Boys name), decided to freeze out Brian yet again.

The Black Crowes

The Black Crowes' career has had its ups and downs, and most or all of these were determined by the alternately hot and cold fraternal relationship shared by its two fraternal leaders, vocalist Chris and guitar-playing brother Rich Robinson. Over a quarter century on from the group’s smash hit 1990 debut, more than a dozen musicians have fleshed out the band’s ranks. Only drummer Steve Gorman hung onto his position and, more often than not, served as a buffer between the Robinsons. Currently on hiatus again, the Black Crowes are bound to make a comeback at some point – because, well, blood is thicker than water, after all.

Cream

As rock’s first true supergroup, Cream set a standard for colossal egos who tried, and ultimate failed, to coexist. Though they shared a dues-paying education with both Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated and the Graham Bond Organization, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker never seemed to like each other much. And when the immensely talented but less assertive Eric Clapton was thrust between the two, it was all he could do to keep the peace with his formidable guitar skills. After a mercurial two-year run, Cream fulfilled their supergroup destiny and packed it all in.

The Eagles

If you’re searching for the band that stands as the poster children for dysfunction, look no further than the Eagles. As their popularity grew and their sound evolved one album at a time across the early 1970s, the Eagles endured all kinds of internal power struggles. Original leader Glenn Frey and the fast-emerging Don Henley ultimately consolidated their control over the group – to the point where, when they fell out in the wake of 1979’s much-delayed 'The Long Run,' it took hell freezing over to resurrect the Eagles. But then longtime guitarist Don Felder got himself exiled a few years later for voicing his opinions.

Fleetwood Mac

While most bands deny or try to gloss over any public talk of internal dysfunction, Fleetwood Mac turned it to their advantage: first tapping into it for inspiration while recording their career best seller 'Rumours,' and then owning up to all the dirty details so that their fans felt even closer to the men and women behind the music. All of this late-‘70s drama followed the group’s early trials with founder Peter Green (who suffered a nervous breakdown), and a series of personnel shifts in the ensuring Bob Welch era. That alone might have qualified Fleetwood Mac as one of rock’s most dysfunctional bands.

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The Kinks

Another band boasting a pair of eternally bickering siblings, the Kinks built much of their life’s work on top of (or perhaps in spite of) the ever-fractious but nonetheless nearly unshakable bond connecting brothers Ray and Dave Davies. Perhaps even more remarkable is how that bond resisted an incalculable number of bust-ups and smash-ups (many of them no doubt related to Ray’s dominant role as Kinks songwriter) over an amazing 33-year run, which saw the Kinks' popularity rise, then fall, then rise, and fall again until their breakup in 1996. It remains to be seen whether the Davies boys will ever find common ground again.

Motley Crue

For years, Motley Crue did more than virtually any other band to perpetrate the myth that rock groups really are gangs of inseparable blood brothers. But when the wheels fell off and vocalist Vince Neil fell out with bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee and guitarist Mick Mars, their public spat was likewise among the most vicious in rock history. Turns out, Motley Crue doesn’t do anything half-assed — neither love nor hate. That has certainly been the case ever since the original foursome’s reunion in the late ‘90s. The fragile peace continued through the band’s subsequent recordings all the way to their now-concluded farewell tour.

Pink Floyd

While most dysfunctional bands employ dozens of musicians, Pink Floyd employed a similar number of lawyers as longtime leader, bassist and chief songwriter Roger Waters battled it out with guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour. For years, Waters had reigned over the group with an iron fist, so when he unilaterally announced their breakup in the early ‘80s, the possibility that his bandmates would have the gumption to carry on never seemed to cross his mind. When they did, all hell broke loose in lengthy litigation. Thankfully, recent years have seen an unlikely truce struck between both sides.

The Police

Punk rock’s most savvy trio, the Police brought together three colossal musical talents (with egos to match) whose only shared ambition seemed to be subverting rock’s most rudimentary form with their thinly veiled virtuosity and supernatural pop songwriting instincts. Since most of the latter belonged to singer/bassist Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland had to grudgingly concede his initial leadership role in the group, with only guitarist Andy Summers to act as a buffer — in part thanks to his own formidable career resume with passages through Zoot Money, Soft Machine and the Animals. Before they initially called it quits, following a stunning string of five studio albums, the Police had turned all this dysfunction into beautiful music, and none of their fans would have it any other way.

Talking Heads

With the possible exception of Television, none of CBGBs' many legendary alumni were more intelligent or sophisticated in their artistic ambitions than the Talking Heads, but as we all know intellect is no remedy for dysfunction. Though they had a college education in common (obtained at Rhode Island’s School of Design) and shared a loft upon their joint relocation to New York City, Talking Head founders David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth saw their strong bonds disintegrate as Byrne gradually took control of the group’s creative process. Though they managed to contain this festering unhappiness for some time, resentment kept growing and an acrimonious breakup was inevitable — not that the Talking Heads' amazing music suffered for it.

Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen redefined the possibilities of the electric guitar and his band later redefined the definition of dysfunction. For years, only the otherworldly music they created together kept Eddie, his drumming brother Alex, bassist Michael Anthony and singer David Lee Roth working on the same page. And when Sammy Hagar stepped in for the exiting Roth, one of then most public feuds in rock history ensued. Then Roth came back and got fired, thus opening the door for Extreme frontman Gary Cherone … who in turn also got fired, making way for Sammy’s brief return, and later David yet again. Then, where did Michael go? With all of these comings and goings, even their most ardent fans might not have been able to keep them straight – but they never stopped supporting their heroes, of course.

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