Pink Floyd, for the sale of the catalogue comes up Sony Music. What we know

Surprisingly, the dossier on the sale of masters and copyright of Pink Floyd's catalogue is back on track: major Sony Music is reportedly in negotiations for an estimated sum of around 500 million dollars. This was reported by the Financial Times, which already two years ago recounted in great detail the derby between Warner Music (the group's current record company) and Bmg to bring home the result. But the different visions of the game - one would have to say of the world - of the two 'majority shareholders' Roger Waters and David Gilmour, as well as the anti-Israeli and anti-NATO positions of the band's bassist and main songwriter, scuppered the sale. There was also talk of an interest by Hipgnosis which, in the meantime, has found other challenges.

According to some people familiar with the situation, the band is now in negotiations with Sony Music. The catalogue includes some of the biggest rock hits of the last 50 years, such as Money , Wish You Were Here and Another Brick in the Wall. There is no guarantee of an agreement this time either, given the problems of the past, but the confrontation goes on.

The potential deal shows that there is still considerable interest in buying and selling the music rights of famous artists, whose hits remain popular with the younger generation thanks to streaming services and their use in TV series and films. However, the sector has had a more difficult time in recent years as rising interest rates have eroded returns and made other investments more attractive.

In July, the private equity group Apollo invested USD 700 million to support Sony in music acquisitions. Sony Music is also in talks to buy Queen's music rights for around USD 1 billion. Among the major deals of the Japanese conglomerate's subsidiary Sory Corp are, of course, the Bruce Springsteen catalogue deal backed by Eldridge Industries, Todd Boehly's investment vehicle, and the acquisition of Bob Dylan's masters.

In the Pink Floyd household, David Gilmour is undoubtedly the most convinced proponent of the operation. "It would be my dream to sell the Pink Floyd catalogue," he declared these days. "Not for money, but to free myself from the burden of arguments and quarrels about what to do with it." He is wrong. Giving up the rights and masters of one's own songbook then means sheltering oneself from the imponderable dynamics of a record market that had never been as volatile as it is in the age of streaming. Today, the majors price themselves for staggering sums, but the memory of the dark years of the Napster crisis is still alive. In the United States, then, at this particular moment in history, even on a fiscal level, it is better to have a large sum to re-invest than an asset whose margins will all have to be verified in the medium to long term, when the ball will pass to the heirs. And the point is perhaps precisely the latter: among the assets in a will, money is much easier to divide. It is no coincidence that all rock greats who venture down these paths are at the end of their tether.