Pink Floyd‘s post-“Dark Side of the Moon” catalog has been removed from digital retail sites such as iTunes and Amazon.com following the lapse of record label EMI‘s contract with the band June 30.
EMI continues to sell CD copies that it already has in stock, but won’t be able to manufacture new copies of post-“Dark Side” albums until, and if, it signs a new contract with the band.
Floyd’s albums following 1973’s “Dark Side of the Moon” were originally issued by Columbia. EMI acquired the rights to them in 2000. Pre-“Dark Side” albums are unaffected and still available as hardcopies and digital downloads from EMI.
This latest development is unrelated to a London High Court ruling that sided with the band, which argued EMI didn’t have the right to sell its tracks online individually, a practice known as “unbundling.”
Reuters reports the band’s management has been shopping its back catalog around to labels for a new licensing deal for 18 months, but the high asking price has turned away a number of labels.
Floyd is one of the biggest selling recording acts of all time. Since 1991, the band’s albums have sold 36.2 million copies in the United States, including 654,000 in 2009 and nearly 311,000 in 2010.
As an example of how digital sales have contributed to Floyd’s volume, consider this: According to Reuters, in the two months leading up to the expiration of EMI’s contract, fans were buying about 1,000 digital copies of “The Wall” a week. That number is now practically zero.
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