Pink Floyd have struck a deal to sell the rights to their recorded music catalogue.

According to The Financial Times, who broke the news, the deal with Sony is worth 400 million dollars and includes Pink Floyd’s recorded music, the band name and the artists’ “likeness”, meaning that the label will have the rights to merchandise and spin-offs.

The FT points out: "Songs have two sets of copyrights: one for the songwriting and one for the recording, or master copy. Pink Floyd has agreed to sell their recorded rights, but not the songwriting, said people familiar with the matter."

Earlier this month, David Gilmour declared that it would be a "dream" of his to sell the band's catalogue.

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Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason says Welcome to the Machine in a bid to bring back feuding bandmate Roger Waters – using AI.

Nick, 80, believes there is no chance guitarist David Gilmour, 78, and bassist Roger will bury the hatchet after a decades-long row. But he does think artificial intelligence could create songs as if Roger, 80, had never left the band in 1985.

The bitter feud dates from then, when Waters unsuccessfully tried to stop the remaining members using the Pink Floyd name. Nick said: “It would be fascinating to see what AI could do with new music. If you tried to run it as a sort of ‘Where did Pink Floyd go after?’

“The thing to do would be to have an AI situation where David and Roger become friends again. We could be like ABBA by the time we’ve finished with it.” The group, whose albums include The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, are one of the best-selling groups of all time.

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Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon turns 50 this year, and to celebrate the milestone the band held a competition to create new videos for each of the record’s tracks. However, the rock legends are now on the end of a backlash from fans and creatives across the globe because one of the winning videos was created using ‘AI’-created art.

Damián Gaume’s video for Any Colour You Like features all the telltale weirdness of Large Language Model-created art, including the over-saturated colouration and shaky, non-linear animation. Given that the issue of AI’s use as a creative tool – and the morality of using tools that are trained on human-created art without compensating said humans – is a hot-button issue right now, it’s no surprise that many fans were unhappy with the band’s decision.

“A spit in the face of actual artists who poured their heart and soul into each frame of work they made and submitted for this competition,” one fan commented on the YouTube page for the video. “I’m absolutely disgusted.”

“Given the band’s history of working with artists and animators… disappointing,” another notes. Countless commenters are disappointed; “A band with almost 60 years of history creating art and it all comes down to this? Fucking over actual artists and rewarding this slop?”

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