A highly publicized investigation spearheaded by The New York Times revealed two weeks ago that over 500,000 master recordings had been destroyed in the disastrous 2008 fire at Universal’s Hollywood warehouse, including pivotal works from Nirvana, The Roots, John Coltrane, REM, Buddy Holly and more. Funnily enough, many of the artists who had music lost in the fire found out about the loss through the NYT article, sparking mass outrage within the musical community.
Now, a massive $100m class action has been filed against Universal Music Group for their role in covering up the extent of the damages to the artists involved. The lawsuit, which sees Soundgarden, Hole, Steve Earle and the estates of Tupac and a former partner of Tom Petty as plaintiffs, claims that Universal “had a duty to share any income received as settlements from the fire, including an insurance payment,” as well as stating that the label were in fact “breaching its contracts with artists by failing to properly protect the tapes.”
Although Universal have rebuffed The New York Times by questioning the extent of the damages reported in the article, there’s no denying that a lot of artists will be hungry to see some compensation for what is considered one of the worst cover-ups in music history. Stay tuned for more news when this story develops further.
Read our original article covering the 2008 fire here.
