Why have Pink Floyd wrapped their album sleeves on streaming services in black?

Pink Floyd around 1970
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Pink Floyd have taken the step of wrapping all of their album sleeves on social media in plain black, with a description of the artwork in white print. The band's website and social media pages have also been given a similar makeover.

So the album sleeve for 1975's Wish You Were Here, for example, features the description 'Two men in suits shaking hands one man is on fire'. Wish You Were Here was originally released in a black plastic wrap shrouding the iconic cover art.

Wish You Were Here celebrates its 50th anniversary on September 12, this Friday. Although there has been no official announcement of an anniversary reissue, given that the Floyd catalogue was purchased by Sony Music in October 2024 for $400million, one can expect the new owners to be looking to begin reaping financial rewards for their ownership.

The label released Pink Floyd's Pink Floyd At Pompeii - MCMLXXII on vinyl, CD and as a film in April to much acclaim, and with the Internet awash with fan speculation, we'd say an announcement on Wish You Were Here would be imminent!

David Gilmour's new concert film, Live At The Circus Maximus, premieres this evening in London and hits cinemas later this month. It will also be released on 2 Blu-Ray and 3 DVD sets with bonus unseen footage and the full The Luck And Strange Concerts mixed in 5.1 and Atmos (Blu-Ray only) will be released through Sony on October 17.

Pink Floyd social media September 2025

(Image credit: Pink Floyd)

Pink Floyd Spotify September 2025

(Image credit: EMI)
Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.

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