Vintage sells. On Sunday, September 29, you could see the queues of envious young people outside an Adidas pop-up store in Paris's 3rd arrondissement, where there were iconic three-stripe jogging suits from the 1970s and 1980s on the shelves. This passion for the past has not escaped Sony, which has acquired the music catalogue of Pink Floyd, known for timeless hits such as "Money" (1973) and "Another Brick in the Wall" (1979).
The deal was concluded for around $400 million (€361 million), revealed the Financial Times on October 1. The money will go into the pockets of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason as well as the heirs of Rick Wright (1943-2018). The deal gives the record company not only the recording rights, but also the image rights – will there be a biopic? – of the British band.
Sony is crazy about old rockers. In 2024, the music corporation had already got its hands on some of Queen's rights for $1 billion, adding to the hits they already own of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. The firm has the means. In July, it secured $700 million in capital backing from the Apollo investment fund to finance its investments in the music industry.
Of course, it's not without a certain irony to see the crème de la crème of financial capitalism playing an instrumental role for the benefit of artists whose famed album Animals, released in 1977, was a musical interpretation of George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945), transforming it into an anti-capitalist pamphlet. Who could forget the mythical cover, with the pig, symbol of the plutocracy, flying over the Battersea power station in London, representing the working class?
The album bears the stamp of Roger Waters, one of the leaders of the British band before being expelled in 1985, whose dark side is never far from the surface. In October 2022, an interview given by the bassist to Rolling Stone magazine, in which he detailed his views on Russia's invasion of Ukraine (NATO's fault, according to him) and on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (for which American or British Jews bear part of the responsibility, as they "pay for everything"), had scuppered a first attempt at a deal. Polly Samson, the wife of David Gilmour, the band's other key figure, attacked Roger Waters on X, calling him "anti-Semitic to [his] rotten core."
Would-be buyers for the catalogue had cautiously withdrawn. At the time, a valuation of $500 million was mentioned. This means a discount of roughly $100 million in terms of the price announced by Sony. The price of controversy?