A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
It’s going to be impossible to tell this story without this piece of music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MONEY”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) Money.
MARTÍNEZ: That, of course, Pink Floyd with “Money” – something the musicians now have a lot more of. The Financial Times reports the band sold the rights to the record catalog for around 400 million bucks.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Whoa. For that price, Sony Music also gets the Pink Floyd name and likeness rights – a brand the group has been building since around 1965.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MONEY”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
MARTÍNEZ: The Pink Floyd catalog includes two of the biggest-selling albums of all time, “Dark Side Of The Moon” and “The Wall.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL, PART 2”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) All in all, it’s just…
STEVE INSKEEP AND PINK FLOYD: (Singing) …Another brick in the wall.
INSKEEP: Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and David Gilmour haven’t gotten along for a while now. Gilmour recently told Rolling Stone he wanted to sell the band’s work so that he could, quote, “get out of the mud bath.”
MARTÍNEZ: This deal adds to a trend of older musicians selling off their catalogs. Three years ago, Bruce Springsteen nabbed around 550 million for his works.
INSKEEP: Bob Dylan, Phil Collins and Paul Simon have all opted to sell ownership of their life’s work.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HAVE A CIGAR”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) We’re just knocked out. We heard about the sellout.
INSKEEP: So now the Pink Floyd sale joins those sales among the largest catalog deals in music history.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HAVE A CIGAR”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) …We can hardly count. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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