Pink Floyd fans rejoice! The entire back catalog of Pink Floyd, along with the solo albums by the band’s guitarist and co-lead vocalist David Gilmour, are officially available on streaming music service Spotify after a successful “audition” demonstrated the massive interest Spotify users had in listening to the classic material.
Although “The Floyd”‘s music has been available on other streaming services like Rhapsody and Rdio, Spotify was previously unable to come to an agreement with the band over who would be able to hear the music. The other streaming services that Pink Floyd’s music was available on had managed to limit access to paying subscribers, whereas Spotify’s model meant that everyone, even free users, would be able to stream the tracks.
As recently as last year, the band’s manager Paul Loasby said the Floyd “did not want to go with ad-funded [digital straming models], but agreed to go on subscription ones.” However, Spotify requested that material was streamable to all its users. “It was all or nothing.”
The fact that Pink Floyd’s catalog is now available on Spotify doesn’t mean the company changed its terms. Instead, the band reconsidered its position as streaming services become more important as forms of outreach to new listeners. According to Spotify’s Chief Content Officer Ken Parks, the band “decided, quite wisely I think, that this is the future of music consumption, that it helps them reach deep into a demographic that is not their core demographic, and that it’s a place they need to be to secure their legacy.”
Of course, a little reassurance along those lines doesn’t hurt, which might explain the Twitter-led trial that took place this past weekend. On Thursday of last week, the official Pink Floyd Twitter account told followers to “Help stream ‘Wish You Were Here’ 1 million times to unlock Pink Floyd’s catalogue on @Spotify.” It’s unknown exactly when that milestone was reached, but by mid-Monday, all of the Floyd and Gilmour catalogs were available on the streaming service.
Talking about the addition, Parks called Monday “a great day for fans of prog rock, but it’s also a great day for younger fans who have yet to be really turned on to the magic of Pink Floyd,” adding that “That’s a lot of what this is about: bringing a new generation of fans to one of the biggest and most iconic bands in the world.”
“With some of these bands, it does take a long time [to sign up to allow their music to be shared],” Parks continued. “But we spend a lot of time talking to bands and their management about how we can be good partners for them. They can take some convincing, but for us the effort to work with a band like Pink Floyd is certainly worth it.”
