FINANCIAL TIMES: SONY SNAGS PINK FLOYD RIGHTS

The famously feuding Pink Floyd has finalized a $400m deal to sell its catalog to Sony Music, per the Financial Times. Sony reps declined comment on the development, which has been in the works for months.

The partnership will encompass Pink Floyd's lucrative recorded-music catalog as well as rights to the band's name and its members' likenesses. Not covered are the individual publishing rights of surviving principals Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason or those of the late Rick Wright and Syd Barrett.

The catalog was put up for sale in 2022 and drew bids from such usual suspects as Hipgnosis, Primary Wave and BMG, but nothing substantive materialized until now.

The Pink Floyd deal extends Sony's catalog-buying spree, which has included a reported $1b acquisition of Queen's rights earlier this year and more than $500m for Bruce Springsteen in 2021. It follows asset-management firm Apollo's investment in Sony of $700m "for investments in the music industry."

With deals like this, HITS was clearly wrong when we adopted "We don't need no education" as our guiding principle.