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Universal Music Group Forms 70-Person Team to Respond to Artist Inquiries Over Recordings Lost in 2008 Vault Fire
Universal Music Group Forms 70-Person Team to Respond to Artist Inquiries Over Recordings Lost in 2008 Vault Fire
(Photo credit: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

Universal Music Group Forms 70-Person Team to Respond to Artist Inquiries Over Recordings Lost in 2008 Vault Fire

Lenny Kravitz, Grace Jones, Lauryn Hill, Lion Babe, Thundercat, SZA & More Rock The Afropunk Festival 2015 in Brooklyn, NY. (Photo credit: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

The music giant enlists dozens of archivists, recording engineers, producers, developers, and musicologists to help with damage control.

Earlier this week, The New York Times published a damn-near endless list of the artists suspected to have lost their master recordings in the now infamous 2008 vault fire at a Universal Studios storage facility.

The recordings of John and Alice Coltrane, Ray Charles, Sun Ra, Yasiin Bey, Busta Rhymes, The Roots, and nearly 700 other living and legacy Universal Music Group artists are amongst those now believed to be claimed by the fire. That's a lot of (rightfully) angry artists, lawyers, and reps, wondering where their masters were stashed 11 years ago.

READ: Busta Rhymes, Yasiin Bey & Common Also Had Material Lost In The 2008 Universal Studios Vault Fire

According to Variety, UMG's fielded enough enraged inquiries since the original bombshell report that the music giant has launched a 70-person squad to sort out its disgruntled roster. In a memo to the staff obtained by Variety, Pat Kraus, SVP of Recording Studios & Archive Management, explained that the label had dedicated 30 "highly skilled professionals including archivists, recording engineers, producers, developers and musicologists" to "handle everything from receiving, logging and tracking requests to archival research, data analysis, A&R administration and asset retrieval." They've secured an additional 40 heads from their media storage partner, Iron Mountain, to support the in-house team.

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As many as 500,000 masters are presumed to have been lost in the blaze and some artists (and/or their estates) have already filed suit. Last week, lawyers for Soundgarden, Hole, Tom Petty, and the Tupac Estate, served UMG a class-action lawsuit for half of the $150 million it was paid in 2013 for damages sustained by the fire. Ironically, UMG sued its parent company, NBCUniversal, for charges that echo the claims artists have made.