Fire at UMG...thousands of masters destroyed

[saturn]

Has anyone else heard this story? Apparently the fire happened back in 2008 at Universal Music Group, but it was managed to be kept quiet until recently.

I originally heard about it on a Rick Beato Youtube rant. NYT did an updated article yesterday listing hundreds of more artists whose master recordings were lost forever.    

I'm just curious who else may have heard about this. I'm sure there are some others here who can articulate the details and give commentary much better than I can.  

[Dub-T-123]

Somebody just mentioned this on another forum recently because I think it was the anniversary of the day it happened or something

 

I’ve never tried setting a tape on fire, but I imagine it is highly flammable like film. The way they stored the irreplaceable masters seems very unwise, but I guess they just had so many of them

[saturn]

 

[uncle fester]

On 6/26/2019 at 10:56 PM, Dub-T-123 said:

 The way they stored the irreplaceable masters seems very unwise, but I guess they just had so many of them

 there's a bazillion ways to store back ups of anything...  would've thought something considered irreplaceable would of had a plan around it.  Some COO dropped the ball big time.

[01GT eibach]

Yes, it is interesting how there is strict control of the master tapes.  The only major artist that I am aware of to actually have physical control and ownership of their master tapes is Motley Crue due to fierce negotiations by Nicki Sixx.  The reason this is coming to light is that the affected artists are lawyer'ing up for a massive class-action lawsuit.  One of the affected artists is Boston ... if there are is anyone I would expect to have a copy would be Tom Sholz.

[uncle fester]

2 hours ago, 01GT eibach said:

Yes, it is interesting how there is strict control of the master tapes.  The only major artist that I am aware of to actually have physical control and ownership of their master tapes is Motley Crue due to fierce negotiations by Nicki Sixx.  The reason this is coming to light is that the affected artists are lawyer'ing up for a massive class-action lawsuit.  One of the affected artists is Boston ... if there are is anyone I would expect to have a copy would be Tom Sholz.

When you think of it, it really is a shame to the highest degree to lose anything like that.  If the original artists were not the owners, hopefully they have copies?