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> The Universal Masters Recordings Fire, Massive music history losses kept secret
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Popchartfreak
post Jun 26 2019, 07:16 AM
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The scale of this disastrous fire has been kept hidden - this long article explains why it has been kept hidden (lawsuits pending from aggrieved artists who have had both masters and back-ups of their work lost forever) and lists the losses, pretty much the whole of A&M records, and artists ranging from Billie Holliday to Eminem.

That means the tatty inferior streaming, CD, mp3 versions that are taken from the originals is all that's left, no chance of unreleased gems, alternate versions, remasters, quality box sets, and the acts dont get their work back at the end of a contract period.

Pretty much, as Sheryl Crow has sadly commented on the loss of her back catalogue, why bother with back-up copies and then stick them in with the originals?

That's not a back-up, that's the actions of a moron...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine...recordings.html
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crazy chris
post Jun 26 2019, 09:24 AM
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Just read the entire article. Really interesting and thanks for posting.

Richard Carpenter's admitted that the masters to most of the Carpenters original albums have been lost too.


This post has been edited by Common Sense: Jun 26 2019, 09:26 AM
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Popchartfreak
post Jun 26 2019, 06:41 PM
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QUOTE(Common Sense @ Jun 26 2019, 10:24 AM) *
Just read the entire article. Really interesting and thanks for posting.

Richard Carpenter's admitted that the masters to most of the Carpenters original albums have been lost too.


Thanks Chris, it did bother me what's been lost! I looked up Richard Carpenter, seems as if he's the only artist to have persisted until they told him a few years back what had happened. Everyone else they just said "we've lost them", for example Bryan Adams wanted to remaster Reckless for it's 30th anniversary. Cheers for the tip!
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Silas
post Jun 26 2019, 07:01 PM
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Horrifying to see how much musical history has been lost forever, especially it seems so much music released on labels whose artists were majority PoC. So many small artists entire recording careers gone. It’s heart wrenching for a music fan to read. Some of my favourite artists aren’t big sellers like ABBA or the Beatles and you rely on storage like this to have the ability to discover small artists forever into the future


V interesting article, cheers for posting that!
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vidcapper
post Jun 27 2019, 04:20 AM
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QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Jun 26 2019, 08:16 AM) *
Pretty much, as Sheryl Crow has sadly commented on the loss of her back catalogue, why bother with back-up copies and then stick them in with the originals?

That's not a back-up, that's the actions of a moron...


Or of penny-pinching record company jobsworths... sad.gif
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Popchartfreak
post Jun 27 2019, 08:53 AM
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QUOTE(5 Silas Frøkner @ Jun 26 2019, 08:01 PM) *
Horrifying to see how much musical history has been lost forever, especially it seems so much music released on labels whose artists were majority PoC. So many small artists entire recording careers gone. It’s heart wrenching for a music fan to read. Some of my favourite artists aren’t big sellers like ABBA or the Beatles and you rely on storage like this to have the ability to discover small artists forever into the future
V interesting article, cheers for posting that!



Thanks Phil, and so right about black music history especially the first half of the 20th century, movies that use these rely on quality originals to allow them to sound great in a cinema setting with all the surround-sound and so on.
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Popchartfreak
post Jun 27 2019, 08:54 AM
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QUOTE(vidcapper @ Jun 27 2019, 05:20 AM) *
Or of penny-pinching record company jobsworths... sad.gif


yes I think that's prob true too!
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crazy chris
post Jun 28 2019, 10:15 PM
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It's really shocking how the UMC Executives all covered up to keep the real details of what was lost from the world's media and more importantly the artists. They were scared they'd be sued the ar*es off them from not only artists who were still alive but from the estates of deceased artists denied the chance to buy the rights to the masters forever once recording contracts had expired. This cover up should receive far more publicity. I'm a huge music fan going back nearly 50 years as you know but had never heard of it until your post Popchartfreak. Yes, had read about the fire but they said it was mostly all okay and there were other back-up recordings and not much was lost forever. rolleyes.gif Downright lies.

I'd say the biggest genre of music to be lost is jazz. Some early classic country too. One of the biggest labels is A&M and many early Rita Coolidge and Herb Albert, ironically the A in A&M, early recordings lost forever as well as the entire Carpenters catalogue. Luckily I read that A&M's The Police masters are in vaults in London so are safe.

Just as a sidenote, The Beatles LP masters are locked in a safe, inpenetrable steel fire-proof vault in a secret part of London so very safe.


This post has been edited by Common Sense: Jun 28 2019, 10:27 PM
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Popchartfreak
post Jun 29 2019, 07:27 AM
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QUOTE(Common Sense @ Jun 28 2019, 11:15 PM) *
It's really shocking how the UMC Executives all covered up to keep the real details of what was lost from the world's media and more importantly the artists. They were scared they'd be sued the ar*es off them from not only artists who were still alive but from the estates of deceased artists denied the chance to buy the rights to the masters forever once recording contracts had expired. This cover up should receive far more publicity. I'm a huge music fan going back nearly 50 years as you know but had never heard of it until your post Popchartfreak. Yes, had read about the fire but they said it was mostly all okay and there were other back-up recordings and not much was lost forever. rolleyes.gif Downright lies.

I'd say the biggest genre of music to be lost is jazz. Some early classic country too. One of the biggest labels is A&M and many early Rita Coolidge and Herb Albert, ironically the A in A&M, early recordings lost forever as well as the entire Carpenters catalogue. Luckily I read that A&M's The Police masters are in vaults in London so are safe.

Just as a sidenote, The Beatles LP masters are locked in a safe, inpenetrable steel fire-proof vault in a secret part of London so very safe.


That's good news about The Police recordings. The Beatles stuff is mostly ongoing remastered releases and a major cash cow so that wasn't a surprise they are stored in London, securely. Prince had his own vault and controlled what was in them, it seems middling stars should try and vault their own stuff, to be sure! It's the stars of yesteryear who are dead and have no say, I guess, and all the minor artists that have just gone up in smoke.

People are used to having stuff on Spotify and download but it's the tip of the iceberg, there's so much stuff still not available except as dodgy copies on youtube. The reason so many old records sound rubbish is due to the rubbish copies - back in the day on vinyl they sounded great. Neil Young always refused to let his stuff be released on CD cos it was just not up to the quality of the original, so he waited decades until technology caught up. sadly those terrible copies of copies still are hanging around for most minor acts cos it's not worth the cost of remastering unless they get it back in adverts, movie placements etc

In so many cases now there never will be a great version released sad.gif Most people arent fussed cos they dont realise the issues, but it's like the Mona Lisa going up in a fire and then saying "It doesn't matter, we have loads of copies we can bung on a wall".
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