Ten years after the disaster, the fire continues to spread Universal. The estate of the rapper Tupac or rocker Tom Petty is associated to a collective complaint filed contrele giant of the music, who is suspected of having deliberately hidden the extent of a fire in 2008 that destroyed 500,000 of the original recordings.
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The plaintiffs are asking at least $ 100 million in damages from the world number one in the music. It is the first legal action since the revelation made by the New York Times of the significant damage caused by the disaster, which occurred on June 1, 2008 in Universal Hollywood.
The complaint was filed before a court in Los Angeles by three law firms also represent the interests of the group Soundgarden, training Hole founded by Courtney Love, or the folk singer Steve Earle.
“UMG has retained the original recordings, which embody the musical work of the plaintiffs, in a warehouse or appropriate or to the standards”, according to the complaint. Universal Music was then “concealed the losses with public statements to be false”, while creating a confidential agreement with his other arm Universal studios, according to the document.
Of the big names left in smoked
Among the records that burned were works, sometimes unique, stars legendary as Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny and Cher, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Janet Jackson, or Nirvana. “I’ll be clear: we need transparency to our artists,” wrote Lucian Grainge, CEO of ‘ Universal Music Group, in a memo published by the letter specialized Music Business Worldwide.
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a Subsidiary of Vivendi whose headquarters is based in Santa Monica, near Los Angeles (California), Universal Music Group is regarded as one of the three giants of the music in the world, with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. But the market share owned by UMG is almost two times larger than its challenger to Sony, thanks to heavyweights like Ariana Grande, and Drake, as well as a huge catalogue of artists that have disappeared, like Frank Sinatra or Queen.
Vivendi is looking to sell 50% of UMG and does not intend to give up, said its CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine to the magazine Variety . “The fire took place eleven years ago and the headlines are just noise”, he estimated.
