Soundgarden, Hole, Steve Earle, Tom Petty's ex-wife Jane and the estate of Tupac Shakur have filed a class action lawsuit against Universal over a 2008 fire
report. The story alleged that among the half-a-million recordings destroyed were irreplaceable master tapes and troves of unreleased material from artists such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Chuck Berry, Elton John, Nirvana, the Roots and Janet Jackson .
Much of the lawsuit is focused on the alleged loss of those master recordings, and the suit argues that all potential members of the class “have an expectation that under their recording agreements with UMG there will be a 50/50 sharing of revenues derived from” the use and release of their work. It also claims that UMG violated good faith and fair dealing in all those contracts by allegedly failing to “take reasonable measures to preserve and maintain” those recordings.
The suit also argues UMG embarked on a “systemic and fraudulent scheme of misrepresentation and misdirection” after the fire. It includes quotes that UMG gave to media outlets after the fire downplaying the damage, such as “We only lost a small number of tapes and other material by obscure artists from the 1940s and Fifties.”report, the label has reportedly also vowed to be as transparent as possible with artists seeking information about potential losses.
At the moment, it still remains unclear what master tapes and recordings were actually lost in the fire. The specific artists leading the new class action suit did not name any particular or notable recordings of theirs that might’ve been destroyed.
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