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June 11, 2019 12:54 pm  #1


Universal Music Group master recordings secretly lost in fire

Eleven years ago this month, a fire ripped through a part of Universal Studios Hollywood.
At the time, the company said that the blaze had destroyed the theme park’s King Kong attraction and a video vault that contained only copies of old works.
But, according to an article published Tuesday by The New York Times Magazine, the fire also tore through an archive housing treasured audio recordings, amounting to what the piece described as “the biggest disaster in the history of the music business.”
https://outline.com/Kw8XRw

 

June 11, 2019 10:14 pm  #2


Re: Universal Music Group master recordings secretly lost in fire

It made me ill to read the list of artists and songs original recordings that are gone forever.  I also was quite disturbed by the use of the word "purge", whereby companies rid themselves of what we would consider classic oldies.  Boy, this getting old is rough on my body and my memories.

 

June 13, 2019 11:24 pm  #3


Re: Universal Music Group master recordings secretly lost in fire

I've heard things over the years that would make anyone weap. This is just the latest. And I've heard of at least one company since this time, actually throwing out master tapes they deemed unimportant... though at least some of them had been of importance to me. Oh well. Nothing on this side of life is eternal...


Tom Diehl
 

June 14, 2019 2:47 am  #4


Re: Universal Music Group master recordings secretly lost in fire

well, at least they didn't intentionally blow up a warehouse full of masters, like rca did some years back. fortunately, some french guys got into it a day or so before the implosion and saved whatever they could carry... by the way, there isn't always one master. depending on how the contract reads, many artists retain their masters and the record company keeps a safety copy, or vice versa as the case sometimes may be. so, some 'destroyed' masters may still exist in many situations.

 

June 15, 2019 8:47 pm  #5


Re: Universal Music Group master recordings secretly lost in fire

gopher wrote:

well, at least they didn't intentionally blow up a warehouse full of masters, like rca did some years back. fortunately, some french guys got into it a day or so before the implosion and saved whatever they could carry... by the way, there isn't always one master. depending on how the contract reads, many artists retain their masters and the record company keeps a safety copy, or vice versa as the case sometimes may be. so, some 'destroyed' masters may still exist in many situations.

 
A safety is not the same thing as a master. I have several masters and safety's in my posession of recordings by my favorite artist, Ronnie Dove. Sometimes the master is at 30 ips while the safety is at 15 (or 15 and 7.5). Sometimes the safety was being recorded simultaneously on a second machine (so it would still be a first generation tape), other times one master was copied to a second tape at either the same or at half the speed, so it would be a second generation tape. Either way, a 15 ips safety would not sound as good as a 30 ips master.

Universal lost 500,000 masters. Maybe 1/4 of those had been issued digitally at some point. Untold thousands of completely unreleased recordings are now completely gone unless some miracle happened. I have an unreleased song by Dennis Turner on one of my YouTube channels. It was recorded for ABC Paramount in 1965. The master was destroyed in the fire, so by chance, that acetate is now the only surviving original copy of the song, and my YouTube video will never sound as good as the original acetate, which would not have sounded as good as the original master.

A lot of artists who "own" their masters, don't just keep them in their garage or closet (some do, like Steve Lawrence), most keep them in the vaults of the major record companies.

A lot more was lost forever than any of us will ever know about.


Tom Diehl
 

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