Universal Music chief Lucien Grainge says label owes artists 'transparency' over vault fire losses
. The damages reportedly covered a swath of artists ranging from Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and Chuck Berry to Elton John, Nirvana, the Roots and Janet Jackson.
While the fire was widely covered in 2008, UMG downplayed the destruction, with one spokesman claiming at the time, “In a sense, nothing was lost.” Following thestory, the label again disputed the extent of the damage, claiming the piece contained “numerous misleading statements, contradictions and fundamental misunderstandings of the scope of the incident and affected assets.”
In his memo, Grainge continued to suggest that the damage was not so great, though he did admit any kind of loss was painful. “Even though that event happened more than a decade ago, and while I’ve been somewhat relieved by early reports from our team that many of the assertions and subsequent speculation are not accurate, one thing is clear: the loss of even a single piece of archived material is heartbreaking,” he said.
Grainge also seemed to suggest the likely loss of a trove of unreleased and unheard recordings from legendary artists, writing, “Even though all of the released recordings lost in the fire will live on forever, losing so much archival material is nonetheless painful. These stories have prompted speculation, and having our artists and songwriters not knowing whether the speculation is accurate is completely unacceptable.
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