Thursday, Sep 8, 2022 • 8min
Who's going to buy the Pink Floyd catalog?
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Welcome to the latest episode of Music Business Worldwide's Talking Trends, supported by Voly Music https://www.volymusic.com/
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Sony Music Group. Warner Music Group. BMG. Hipgnosis. Concord. Primary Wave.
They've all been tipped to be at the negotiating table to acquire a career-spanning catalog from legendary British band Pink Floyd.
On this episode of the Talking Trends podcast, Music Business Worldwide founder, Tim Ingham, reveals what his sources are telling him about the process.
Ingham's industry whisperers suggest that Floyd's camp are looking for GBP £420 million-plus for the catalog, which includes recorded music rights but NOT music publishing rights.
He also explains why exchange rates could play a major role in who ends up landing the rights. (Clue: The British pound is currently at its weakest vs. the US dollar since 1985).
Also discussed:
* Why some sources think Concord may end up as the victor in the race, while others think the smart money's on Sony;
* Why tax implications linked to the locations of the band's members might play an impact on who signs on the dotted line;
* How a handful of the companies in the race to buy Floyd's catalog already have a working relationship with the band The Music Business Worldwide Podcast is supported by Voly Music https://www.volymusic.com/
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Tim Ingham
00:00
Who is going to buy
Pink Floyd's
catalog. My name is Tim Ingham, the founder of Music Business Worldwide. And welcome to the talking trends podcast where we once again dive behind the headlines to look at what's really going on in today's music industry.Share
Break
Tim Ingham
00:57
So after a relatively quiet summer of music business commercial activity, one story looks likely to dominate the headlines over the next month or two. That story is the well covered sell off of
Pink Floyd's
catalog. But when we say catalog, we should get little more specific because this career spanning portfolio of rights according to multiple sources.Share
01:21
Speaking to Music Business Worldwide does not include
Pink Floyd's
publishing rights. Instead, I hear from a few people in the node that the bundle includes the bands recorded music rights or masters as some refer to them plus neighboring rights that's broadcast and public performance income from abroad as well as name and likeness rights and with name and likeness.Share
01:44
If you wanted to make the definitive
Pink Floyd
biopic for example, you'd have to pay to license the names of the band, the iconography of the band etcetera.Share
01:53
Now the most talked about point in all of this, of course, is the price that this set of rights and income streams might fetch. And what I'm hearing is that
Pink Floyd's
representatives are seeking at least £420 million Bundle before I get into the importance of pounds rather than us dollars.Share
02:13
Let me also tell you this two sources close to the discussions going on with Floyd's camp. Tell me that the bands recorded music rights currently generates around £21 million £420 million 20 times multiple.
Share
02:33
And I will get into talking about who's in and who's not for the
Pink Floyd
catalog and who I suspect might end up getting it. But before that, it's worth explaining why pricing Pink Floyd's
catalog in pounds rather than us dollars May end up being significant. So right now, and you May have seen the headlines about this in Bloomberg etcetera as I record this?Share
02:55
The British pound has fallen to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985. That's nearly 40 years ago. So what does that mean in
Pink Floyd
terms? Well, it means that the mooted £420 million price tag for the catalog is currently worth around $485 million at current exchange rates. Now had this deal being closed for argument's sake last July so July 2021 That us dollar price tag again for the equivalent of £420 million.Share
03:28
The same price in pounds it would have exchanged at $575 million $485 million July last year. It would have been fine. 575. In other words, if you're a
US
company working in U. S. Dollars, the Pink Floyd
catalog is currently around 99 $ million cheaper than it was around this time last year, simply because of currency exchange.Share
03:58
Now, let's look at the Runners And Riders. The Financial Times reported the other week that there were a number of companies still in for the
Floyd
catalog and still in discussions with the band's representatives. Those companies were deep breath Sony
music group Warner Music
group, BMG
, Primary Wave
and apparently a Blackstone
backed fund from Hypnosis
.Share
04:20
The first three of those companies have a very apparent existing business relationship with
Pink Floyd
. Sony
distributes the Floyd catalog in the U. S. Warner through Parlophone
does the same in the UK
europe and other territories. And BMG
is the now long running publisher of Roger Waters
, including his piece of the Floyd
catalog subsequent to the Financial Times article coming out music business.Share
04:46
Well by discovered that
Concord
, that's the independent U. S. Based company Concord
was also at the bidding table and was thought to be in advanced discussions with Pink Floyd's
representatives Concord
spent $400 million on downtown's music rights catalog last year and it's done other nine figure deals in recent times, including the acquisition of the Imagine Dragons Publishing catalog, you might remember.Share
05:12
So they should definitely be taken seriously as a candidate here.
Concorde
also has an existing business relationship with Pink Floyd
because it administers the publishing rights for the members of the group who are not Roger Waters
if you're following and it's here where things get really unpredictable.Share
05:29
So allow me to welcome you into a few discussions I've had this past fortnight with various people who are connected to the Floyd sale process. The first person told me outright that he believed
Concord
wasn't just a strong candidate for the Floyd deal, but that Concorde
had actually already won the deal.Share
05:48
That claim has subsequently been disputed by two more sources who say that although
Concorde
is legitimately a frontrunner in the race and should be taken very seriously. The process is technically still ongoing.Share
06:01
One of those sources who isn't connected to
Sony
, that's important tells me that their impression was that Sony
was the most likely to emerge as the acquirer and didn't look like dropping out anytime soon. But I've also heard one quirky detail that May actually weigh in the favor of Concord
or Primary Wave. For example. One source told me that there would be major tax implications for any music company of a certain size.Share
06:27
And I think we're talking about major music companies, companies who turn over more than a billion dollars a year. And that's due to the fact that one of Floyd's members, I don't know who, but I think it's
Roger Waters
is domiciled in the United States and the other members of the band are domiciled elsewhere.Share
06:44
Anyway, the saga rumbles on and we'll soon find out who the victor is and the new owner is of the
Pink Floyd
recorded music catalog.Share
06:53
And once the catalog is sold, you can expect much more examination and discussion around the strategy of companies buying so called evergreen catalog instead of buying more modern music catalogs, especially when the majority of catalog streaming the vast majority, in fact, is taking place of music that was released in the past 10 or 20 years.
Share
07:14
For example,
Pink Floyd
are legitimately still a very popular streaming artist on Spotify. Currently they have just over 1515 million monthly listeners.Share
07:25
But the other month earlier in the summer, I believe,
Hypnosis
and Blackstone
, you might remember this closed the acquisition of Justin Timberlake's publishing catalog for somewhere around $100 million. That was what was reported, I think by the new york Post around $100 million for the publishing catalog of Justin timberlake.Share
07:44
Now, that's around 1/5 of the price we're expecting
Pink Floyd's
recorded music catalog to fetch Justin Timberlake
currently has 33 million monthly listeners on Spotify, more than double that of Pink Floyd
Music Business Worldwide.Share
08:03
Talking trends will be back soon with more insight into today's global music industry. Thank you to our talking trends sponsor Volley music, go and check out what they do and how they can help your business at Volley music dot com, That's V O L Y music dot com.
Share
08:17
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