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Universal Tape Vault Fire and its Continuing Revelations
On Sunday, June 1, 2008, a fire erupted at the tape vault at Universal Studios in Hollywood. Universal's record division was on its way to becoming the largest record label in the U.S. Universal was already a huge and storied record company dating back to 78rpm records, released under brand names Decca, Coral, Brunswick, Vocalion, Kapp, Uni, & MCA. Add to that the numerous labels that Universal had acquired like Chess and ABC (ABC itself had acquired several great vintage r&b labels before leaving the record business in 1979, all of which was acquired by Universal.). News of the fire in 2008 was brief, short on detail, and quickly removed from the news cycle.
In 2019, eleven years after the fire, the New York Times Magazine published a heartbreaking article about what was thought to have been destroyed. To record collections and fans of vintage rock 'n' roll and rhythm 'n' blues, the initial news in 2008 and the Times article was nearly as shocking as the bombing of Japan in World War 2.
On August 9, 2023, a website called Tracking Angle posted a video on YouTube nearly one hour and forty-five minutes in length of a tour of Universal Record's tape vault near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The startling point made in this video and the accompanying article is that the warehouse that caught fire was in the process of being emptied and its contents being transferred to Pittsburgh. Further, the author asserts that among those master tapes lost in the fire, first generation copies of many were safely stored by Universal Music at facilities elsewhere, such as Germany. Earlier reports suggested there were no duplicates anywhere, which I doubted, considering how many reissues and compilation albums by vintage artists are released in the European countries and Great Britain.
So, if you are interested in this process of reissuing vintage recordings on CDs and records (physical formats), I am sharing links to the video and relevant articles.
On Sunday, June 1, 2008, a fire erupted at the tape vault at Universal Studios in Hollywood. Universal's record division was on its way to becoming the largest record label in the U.S. Universal was already a huge and storied record company dating back to 78rpm records, released under brand names Decca, Coral, Brunswick, Vocalion, Kapp, Uni, & MCA. Add to that the numerous labels that Universal had acquired like Chess and ABC (ABC itself had acquired several great vintage r&b labels before leaving the record business in 1979, all of which was acquired by Universal.). News of the fire in 2008 was brief, short on detail, and quickly removed from the news cycle. 
In 2019, eleven years after the fire, the New York Times Magazine published a heartbreaking article about what was thought to have been destroyed. To record collections and fans of vintage rock 'n' roll and rhythm 'n' blues, the initial news in 2008 and the Times article was nearly as shocking as the bombing of Japan in World War 2. 
On August 9, 2023, a website called Tracking Angle posted a video on YouTube nearly one hour and forty-five minutes in length of a tour of Universal Record's tape vault near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The startling point made in this video and the accompanying article is that the warehouse that caught fire was in the process of being emptied and its contents being transferred to Pittsburgh. Further, the author asserts that among those master tapes lost in the fire, first generation copies of many were safely stored by Universal Music at facilities elsewhere, such as Germany. Earlier reports suggested there were no duplicates anywhere, which I doubted, considering how many reissues and compilation albums by vintage artists are released in the European countries and Great Britain. 
So, if you are interested in this process of reissuing vintage recordings on CDs and records (physical formats), I am sharing links to the video and relevant articles.
