Concord is at the bidding table for Pink Floyd’s catalog bundle (which doesn’t include music publishing rights) – Music Business Worldwide

The story of Pink Floyd shopping a music rights catalog gets bigger by the day.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that the Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Song Management was in the race to acquire the catalog, for which the band reportedly wanted GBP £400 million-plus.

The other parties still at the table to acquire the catalog, said the report, were: Primary Wave, BMG, Sony Music Group, and Warner Music Group.

MBW has been doing some digging, and discovered that – though those names were correct – there was a significant party who was missed out in that parade: Concord.

We’re told by reliable sources that US-headquartered Concord (which is majority owned by Michigan Retirement Systems) remains a serious contender to acquire the Pink Floyd rights bundle, and is in ongoing discussions with the band’s representatives.

Concord has some history with Pink Floyd, following the firm’s acquisition of Imagem for between USD $500 million and USD $600 million in 2017.

Imagem became the global administrator for David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright’s songs in the band’s catalog in 2013.

The price that Concord paid for Imagem back in 2017 is relevant here, too: MBW is told that Floyd look likely to sell – if they sell – their catalog at somewhere in the same price bracket (USD $500m to USD $600m).

A senior source close to one of the companies at the negotiating table told MBW: “Getting offered close to $600 million here definitely isn’t out of the question. Over $500 million looks like a safe bet at this point.”

Another important clarification versus some reporting that went down last week: The rights bundle currently under negotiation, we’re told by multiple sources, includes Pink Floyd’s entire master rights collection, plus neighboring rights, plus ‘name & likeness’ rights – but does NOT include the band’s music publishing rights (at this stage, anyway).

Concord’s last nine-figure acquisition came last year when it acquired the full rights portfolio of Downtown Music Holdings for around USD $400 million.

The company has been stranger to nine-figure acquisitions in recent years, spending more than $100 million apiece on a career-spanning Imagine Dragons catalog and a majority stake in L.A-based PULSE – both in 2020.

In the year following the Downtown acquisition, Concord went quiet on the M&A front.

During that period, it has now transpired, the company and its parent were mulling over sale offers for Concord. Those sales reached $5 billion – but were all ultimately rejected.

Having now closed the book on that sale exploration process, Concord is back in buying mode: In the past couple of months the firm has announced the eight-figure acquisition of Native Tongue, while it has also reportedly acquired L.A-based HitCo, according to Variety.Music Business Worldwide