Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason Says Upcoming Reissues are Their ‘Last Opportunity to Release Physical Records’

Pink Floyd drummer and resident band archivist Nick Mason has said Floyd previously had no interest in ever unleashing their outtakes, demos and other rarities on the world, but now they are gearing up for a massive reissue campaign of their entire back catalog with such goodies titled ‘Why Pink Floyd?’ What changed?

“We’ve perhaps got an appreciation now that people really are interested in this stuff,” explains Mason in a new 'Why Pink Floyd' promotional interview with InTheStudio.net. “I think originally there was sort of a feeling that only really, really mad people, people who lived on the moon, were really interested in all this sort of outtakes stuff.”

Mason continues, “More relevant is the fact that this is sort of the last opportunity to release physical records, that within two or three years, virtually everything will be downloaded. The thing about releasing the physical product is there’s all the artwork that goes with it, and I’d like that to be available for people who want it.”

We hope Mason is wrong about that last point -- we a pretty big vinyl junkies ourselves and would hate to see everything go digital -- but we will agree music is definitely going in a more digital direction. But whether or not this is the last time Floyd material is issued in a physical format, it certainly is the most expansive collections of reissues -- including single-disc editions of every Pink Floyd album, as well as two-disc and box set versions of ‘Dark Side,’ ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘The Wall' -- that will ever be made available from the band.