Universal Music Group have issued an internal memo to staff regarding the losses from a 2008 fire, stating an initial count has only seen 22 masters lost.
Last month, a story emerged outlining that a 2008 fire in Universal Studios’ Hollywood location was far more devastating than the initial reports of just a few film prints being lost.
As it turned out, more than 500,000 irreplaceable master tapes from artists like Nirvana, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, Captain Beefheart, Sammy Davis Jr., Steely Dan, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe – just to name a few – had been lost.
“A master is the truest capture of a piece of recorded music,” Adam Block, the former president of Legacy Recordings, told the New York Times. “Sonically, masters can be stunning in their capturing of an event in time. Every copy thereafter is a sonic step away.”
While this revelation had undoubtedly shocked fans, some have wondered why it was that the news of the fire’s devastating impact had been covered up for 11 years, especially considering that initial reports indicated there had been “no loss”.
After a number of the effected artists opened up about their loss, a new report was unveiled late last month, revealing a further list of artists whose music was destroyed, including Weezer, Blink-182, Limp Bizkit, The Who, Jawbreaker, Dolly Parton, and many more.
However, a new internal memo from Universal Music Group has now come to light, revealing that only 22 masters have been discovered to be lost during their initial count of the damage.
As Variety reports, Pat Kraus – Universal Music Group‘s senior vice president of recording studios and archive management – shared the memo to staff recently, outlining the known losses at this point in time.
“Over the past several weeks our team has been working around the clock, fielding requests from approximately 275 artists and representatives,” the memo explains.
“To date we’ve reviewed 26,663 individual assets covering 30 artists. Of those assets, we believe we’ve identified 424 that could be missing or lost due to the fire, with audio assets accounting for 349 of them.
“Our data suggests that 22 of those could be ‘original masters’ which are associated with five artists.
“For each of those lost masters, we have located high-quality alternate sources in the form of safety copies or duplicate masters. As we complete new work and we fill in gaps of work we’ve already done, these tallies will continue to evolve by the hour.”
In an effort to clear up any disinformation regarding the losses suffered in the fire, Pat Kraus also responded to a number of frequently asked questions, noting that while there is no definitive list of what has been lost, some of the artists who have come forth to claim their music has been lost did so based on their own assumptions of articles discussing the damage itself.
“First, there is no definitive list of what was destroyed in the fire because it affected both inventoried assets and those that were not inventoried,” Kraus explained.
“Second, even many of the older inventoried assets did not have easy-to-identify complete and accurate metadata associated with them. As a result, the list of supposedly affected assets published in press reports is misleading.”
“Many of the artists who have spoken out did so based on their concerns after reading their names in The New York Times Magazine,” Kraus later added.
“We have subsequently communicated with many of these artists following their public comments and in many cases we’ve been able to reassure them about the status of masters of their performances.
“This is not to say there weren’t losses in the fire, it’s simply to say that the Times report is not a reliable source for what was lost and as a result it has created significant confusion.”
Check out the full memo over at Variety.
Check out ‘Fire In The Hole’ by Steely Dan:
