After a relatively quiet summer of music business commercial activity, one story looks likely to dominate the headlines in the month or two ahead.
That story is the well-reported sell-off of Pink Floyd’s catalog. But when we say ‘catalog’ we should get much more specific, because this career-spanning catalog, according to multiple MBW sources does NOT include Pink Floyd’s publishing rights.
Instead, I hear from a few people in the know, it includes recorded music rights, plus neighbouring rights – that’s broadcast and public performance income from abroad – as well as name & likeness rights (so 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 etc.).
The most talked about point here, of course, is the price of this set of rights and income streams.
And what I’m hearing is that Pink Floyd’s representatives are seeking at least GBP £420 million for the catalog bundle.
Before I get into the importance of pounds rather than dollars here, let me also tell you this: Two sources close to the discussions with Floyd’s camp tell me that the band’s recorded music rights currently generate around GBP £21 million a year.
That would make a GBP £420 million price-tag equivalent to a 20-times multiple.
Before we talk about who’s in for this Pink Floyd catalog – and who I suspect might end up getting it – it’s worth explaining why pricing Floyd’s catalog in pounds, rather than US dollars, may end up being significant.
Right now, as I record this, the pound has just fallen to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985 – nearly 40 years ago.
What that means, in Floyd terms, is that the mooted £420 million price-tag for this catalog is currently worth around USD $485 million.
Had the deal been closed, for argument’s sake, last July, that US dollar pricetag, again for the equivalent of GBP £420 million, would have been USD $575 million.
In other words, if you’re a US company working in US dollars, the Pink Floyd catalog is currently around USD $90 million cheaper than it was around this time last year – simply because of currency exchange.