Dark Side Of The Moon is one of the biggest albums ever and it has been reissued multiple times (the two are clearly connected).

It was originally released in 1973, almost instantly making the band one of the biggest in the world. Since then it has had a 20th anniversary reissue, a 30th anniversary reissue and a 40th anniversary reissue – not forgetting the 2011 multi-disc “immersion” boxset reissue.

Given its state of perma-reissuing, where does that leave them for the 50th reissue considering how much extra/unheard material has already been apportioned out on the other big reissue sets?

Well, a moon-sized boxset has now been released, costing around £250, that has the album in multiple iterations. It contains a CD and LP with 2023 mastering of the studio album, a CD and LP of a live show from Wembley Empire Pool in London in 1974, a 5.1 Bru-ray disc of the studio album, another Blu-ray disc with Dolby Atmos and high-res stereo mixes, a DVD Audio disc with multiple mixes, a 160-page hardcover book, a 76-page music book and replicas of two 7” singles.

This might seem like overkill, but for a band with an ageing, affluent, audiophile audience, this is taking the maxim that “more is more” and seeing how far it can be pushed.

To market it, the Empire State Building in New York City was illuminated with the prism spectrum sleeve artwork and shown on the Empire State Building’s live cam. It was also marked with a light show in Milan’s Duomo square.

Given the album’s title, having a celestial theme is a marketing open goal. Hence there were surround sound album playbacks at a number of planetariums with visuals overseen by Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis, the design team behind many of the band’s album sleeves, including Dark Side Of The Moon.

“Each song has a different theme; some futuristically looking forward and some a retro acknowledgment to Pink Floyd’s visual history, all relating to a time and space experience, embracing up to the minute technology that only a Planetarium can offer,” says the press release on the activation.

It is also a nice throwback to the fact that EMI held a press event in 1973 to launch the album at the London Planetarium.

Amid ongoing inter-band fighting, Roger Waters is currently re-recording the album as a means of reclaiming the work and insisting that it was primarily his. Fittingly, this being Pink Floyd, it would be a betrayal of their history to have everyone happy and agreeing on everything.