Universal Music Group is one of the “Big Three” music companies, and counts Drake, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande as some of its biggest stars. However, Universal’s reputation and legacy is built on its large back catalog of influential artists such as Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and Queen, whose music came under the UMG umbrella during decades of record label acquisitions and consolidations. In June 2008, a fire at the backlot of Universal Studios Hollywood destroyed a vault housing some of the most important master recordings owned by the company. At the time, reports focused on the loss of videotapes and film reels controlled by NBCUniversal, but largely ignored the music archive.
A new piece published in The New York Times takes an in-depth look at the fire and its devastating aftermath. A confidential report issued in 2009 by UMG estimated 500,000 songs were destroyed in the blaze, while the company priced the monetary loss at $150 million when combining the total of lost tape and “loss of artistry,” according to Randy Aronson, who was UMG’s senior director of vault operations at the time.
The scope of music history lost in the fire is staggering. As The New York Times reports, the vault held analog tape masters dating back as far as the late 1940s, as well as more recent digital masters. This included multitrack recordings—the raw recorded materials from which mixed analog masters are usually assembled—and sessions masters containing recordings which were never commercially released.
Masters for historically significant labels such as Decca, Chess, MCA, ABC, A&M, Geffen, and Interscope were wiped out in the fire. Among the Decca masters were recordings by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and Judy Garland, as well as those of Billie Holiday and Patsy Cline.
The fire also likely destroyed Chess masters containing some of Chuck Berry’s most important work, as well as music by Muddy Waters, Etta James, and Buddy Guy. Also likely lost were masters of the first commercially released material by Aretha Franklin.
Virtual all of Buddy Holly’s masters were lost, as well as John Coltrane’s Impulse masters. Other masters from the label that were destroyed included releases by Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, and other jazz greats.
Others notable masters claimed in the fire include iconic singers like Ray Charles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Al Green, as well as classic rock acts like Elton John, the Eagles, and Aerosmith. Recordings from more modern R&B acts like New Edition, Mary J. Blige, and Janet Jackson were also destroyed, as well as rappers like 2Pac, Eminem, and 50 Cent. Grunge acts such as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Soundgarden also had masters stored in the vault.
In a statement issued to Variety, Universal Music Group said The New York Times report contains “numerous inaccuracies, misleading statements, contradictions and fundamental misunderstandings of the scope of the incident and affected assets.”
“Music preservation is of the highest priority for us and we are proud of our track record,” the statement reads in part. “While there are constraints preventing us from publicly addressing some of the details of the fire that occurred at NBCUniversal Studios facility more than a decade ago, the incident—while deeply unfortunate—never affected the availability of the commercially released music nor impacted artists’ compensation."
UMG did not dispute the damage to the archives, however, and not having the masters available makes a huge impact on the future of music. Although more songs than ever are readily available through streaming services, the large majority of recorded music hasn’t been properly digitized yet. The National Recording Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Library of Congress, estimated in 2013 that less than 18 percent of commercial music archives have been transferred and made available for streaming services and digital downloads.
In addition, access to master recordings is a necessary step for reissuing an album, as The Roots‘ Questlove points out:
As a result of savvy crisis management, UMG received minimal blowback in the decade since the fire. Thanks to this new report, that should all change.
Read the full report at The New York Times.
