Lawsuits Against Universal Music Group Expected

Universal fire - 2008

A high-profile Los Angeles law firm representing multiple recording artists plans to file legal action as early as this week in response to news that a massive number of original master recordings were destroyed in a 2008 fire at Universal Studios Hollywood, reports The LA Times.

“We have many very concerned clients,” attorney Howard King, partner in King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, said Thursday. “This has a potentially huge impact on their future, coupled with the rather disturbing fact that no one ever told them that their intellectual property may have been destroyed. There is a significant amount of discussion going on, and there will be formal action taken.”

The total number of master recordings lost in the fire could run as high as 500,000 recordings, the report said. Only a fraction of the original masters held in the facility were adequately copied, the story said, resulting in the loss of irreplaceable original masters by Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Eagles, Elton John, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Muddy Waters, Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Bing Crosby and dozens, if not hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other recording artists.

(AP Photos)

Original master recordings are the source material for commercially released versions that are sold, downloaded or streamed by consumers. They are typically the wellspring from which remastered or remixed reissues, box sets and other archival releases originate year in and year out, decade after decade.

Universal Music Group, or UMG, is the world’s largest recorded-music company. In 2018, its global market share was about 31%, well ahead of second-place Sony Music’s 21% and Warner Music Group’s 18.5%, according to industry figures.

UMG took issue with the New York Times Magazine story last Tuesday, citing “numerous inaccuracies, misleading statements, contradictions and fundamental misunderstandings of the scope of the incident and affected assets.”

The company’s statement insisted, “Music preservation is of the highest priority for us and we are proud of our track record. 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.”

A UMG spokesman said Thursday that the company has no comment on the proposed lawsuits.