Artists Ready Lawsuits Against Universal Music Over Recordings Destroyed in 2008 Fire

(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

The first wave of lawsuits against UMG could arrive as early as next week.

Earlier this week, a New York Times Magazine report detailed the loss of as many as 500,000 original recordings in a 2008 fire at a Universal Studios storage facility, as well as Universal Music Group's coordinated effort to cover-up up the extent of the damage.

Now, the LA Times has revealed that artists are already rallying to file suit against the label. According to the report, Attorney Howard King -- of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano -- is readying both individual and class action lawsuits against the world's largest record label. He tells The Times, "It is inconceivable to me that the largest record label in the world could be in this situation, with masters going back to the 1940s, which are irreplaceable, and they did not put them in a vault that’s fireproof or otherwise tamper-proof. It just blows my mind."

In the days after the original report was published, artists flooded social media with audits of their personal losses. Questlove implied that The Roots would never be able to reissue their first two albums, Do You Want More and Illadelph Halflife, as the original recordings and bonus material were lost to the fire. Other artists like Hole and Steely Dan, were aware of their masters disappearing, but were never offered a "plausible explanation" as to how that happened.

King notes that UMG sued NBCUniversal and their parent company, Vivendi, after the 2008 fire for alleged negligence in maintaining the storage facilities. After four years in the courts, the label landed a confidential settlement for undisclosed damages. King claims UMG failed to report or share the settlment with their roster of artists.

In a statement, the label maintained that "The incident – while deeply unfortunate – never affected the availability of the commercially released music nor impacted artists’ compensation."