Selling individual tracks online is not the only thing Pink Floyd has been raging against recently. The band has removed several albums from iTunes, Amazon, et al, due to EMI’s contract expiring at the end of June.
The Wall, Animals, Wish You Were Here and The Final Cut have all disappeared due to record label issues. Now that Pink Floyd’s contract with EMI has ended, the band is on the lookout for a new label to licence its complete catalogue – ensuring, of course, that albums aren’t chopped up with songs sold individually.
While The Wall has sold extremely well since EMI took it on back in 2000 (sales amount to 1.5 million in the US alone), only 107,000 of those have been digital sales.
Some of Pink Floyd’s earlier albums, such as The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Dark Side of the Moon, are still available to download, as EMI still has the licence for those.
Pink Floyd, like The Beatles and Radiohead, remain one of those bands concerned with the digital release of its art. It’s entirely understandable, but removing some of their greatest albums from online will only be further incentive for people to acquire them by unscrupulous means. [Reuters via TechRadar]
Dean
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 9:51 AMSomewhat ironic coming from a band that wasn’t adverse to frequently chopping its art up to release compilation albums: Relics · A Nice Pair · A Collection of Great Dance Songs · Works · Shine On · 1967: The First Three Singles · Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd · Oh, by the Way