Pink Floyd “preserve artistic integrity of albums” in high court battle with EMI

Pink Floyd have won a high court battle to stop record company EMI selling single downloads from their concept albums.

The band who are known for concept albums The Wall and Wish You Were Here argued that retailing the songs from those albums individually breached an agreement made with EMI to prevent the release of said songs "unbundled" without written consent. Chancellor Sir Andrew Morritt accepted arguments by the group that EMI was bound by a contract forbidding it to sell its records other than as complete albums without written consent. The judge sided with the band, noting that the contract was designed to "preserve the artistic integrity of the albums". A fee for the victory is yet to be established.

The band signed with EMI in 1967 and became one of its most lucrative acts, their back catalogue being outsold only by that of The Beatles.

Jay-Z released a concept album 'American Gangster' in 2007 and refused shortly before the record's release to allow iTunes and other online retailers to distribute the album unbundled.