biggest disaster in the history of the music business

[daytona600]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html

The list of destroyed album masters includes
recordings by Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, the Andrews Sisters, the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers, Lionel Hampton, Ray Charles, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Clara Ward, Sammy Davis Jr., Les Paul, Fats Domino, Big Mama Thornton, Burl Ives, the Weavers, Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Bobby (Blue) Bland, B.B. King, Ike Turner, the Four Tops, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Joan Baez, Neil Diamond, Sonny and Cher, the Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, Captain Beefheart, Cat Stevens, the Carpenters, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Al Green, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, the Eagles, Don Henley, Aerosmith, Steely Dan, Iggy Pop, Rufus and Chaka Khan, Barry White, Patti LaBelle, Yoko Ono, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Police, Sting, George Strait, Steve Earle, R.E.M., Janet Jackson, Eric B. and Rakim, New Edition, Bobby Brown, Guns N’ Roses, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Sonic Youth, No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails, Snoop Dogg, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Hole, Beck, Sheryl Crow, Tupac Shakur, Eminem, 50 Cent and the Roots

 

[spiritofmusic]

I'm presuming safety masters are safe elsewhere?

 

[DexterMiller]

Better start collecting pre-recorded reel to reel from the '60s and '70s, then (as: that now, theoretically, would be the closest duplicate source of -once- ABC/DUNHILL/ODE/IMPULSE/DECCA/MCA/[non Herb Alpert catalog]A&M/[non Beatles]CAPITOL/et al. vintage master recordings).

 

[daytona600]

I'm presuming safety masters are safe elsewhere?
NO ALL GONE Forever ( over a decade ago )

 

[Ovenmitt]

A friend had just shared this article with me and I was shocked and sickened upon reading it. What a tragedy..... like the article says, what if MOMA burned down and all that remained were photographs and prints of those irreplaceable works of art? I soppose that one can hope for better awareness in the future, by both the record companies and the public, of what these recordings represent and that better efforts toward preservation will follow...... Truly a sad story.