The Day the Music Burned

[The Computer Audiophile]

This is a great article about all the masters that were destroyed in the Universal fire. The author really gets it and talks about sound quality and the importance of masters. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html

 

Here's a quote:

 

 

It is sonic fidelity, first and foremost, that defines the importance of masters. “A master is the truest capture of a piece of recorded music,” said Adam Block, the former president of Legacy Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment’s catalog arm. “Sonically, masters can be stunning in their capturing of an event in time. Every copy thereafter is a sonic step away.”

 

This is not an academic point. The recording industry is a business of copies; often as not, it’s a business of copies of copies of copies. A Spotify listener who clicks on a favorite old song may hear a file in a compressed audio format called Ogg Vorbis. That file was probably created by converting an MP3, which may have been ripped years earlier from a CD, which itself may have been created from a suboptimal “safety copy” of the LP master — or even from a dubbed duplicate of that dubbed duplicate. Audiophiles complain that the digital era, with its rampant copy-paste ethos and jumble of old and new formats, is an age of debased sound: lossy audio files created from nth-generation transfers; cheap vinyl reissues, marketed to analog-fetishists but pressed up from sludgy non-analog sources. “It’s the audio equivalent of the game of ‘Telephone,’ ” says Henry Sapoznik, a celebrated producer of historical compilation albums. “Who really would be satisfied with the sixth message in?”

 

 

[sphinxsix]

What about fire safety in this place.? It's like saying 'all gold disappeared from Fort Knox, we didn't think it was possible to steal it'.

Anyway not to get too gloomy here - no master quality authentication is possible in the case of the lost tapes, so the thousands of recordings should never appear in MQA format 

[Ishmael Slapowitz]

so this begs the question about all the remasters that have been done since then...what sources were used?

[Rt66indierock]

Thanks for posting this. One of many calamities master tapes have suffered. And providence of albums can be hard or impossible.

[esldude]

7 hours ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

so this begs the question about all the remasters that have been done since then...what sources were used?

Safety masters or 1st gen master copies.  Or like RT66 mentioned providence is hard to come by often. 

 

I read about various re-masterings in detail, and the new mastering guru can't determine exactly whether the record company really sent the masters or copies of the masters.  Often the record company isn't sure itself.  Sometimes they find more than one version of what is supposed to be a master.  Music remastering is as bad as the sausage factory.  You really don't want to know what goes into your sausage or what goes on there. 

[Jud]

9 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

This is a great article about all the masters that were destroyed in the Universal fire. The author really gets it and talks about sound quality and the importance of masters. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html

 

Here's a quote:

 

 

It is sonic fidelity, first and foremost, that defines the importance of masters. “A master is the truest capture of a piece of recorded music,” said Adam Block, the former president of Legacy Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment’s catalog arm. “Sonically, masters can be stunning in their capturing of an event in time. Every copy thereafter is a sonic step away.”

 

This is not an academic point. The recording industry is a business of copies; often as not, it’s a business of copies of copies of copies. A Spotify listener who clicks on a favorite old song may hear a file in a compressed audio format called Ogg Vorbis. That file was probably created by converting an MP3, which may have been ripped years earlier from a CD, which itself may have been created from a suboptimal “safety copy” of the LP master — or even from a dubbed duplicate of that dubbed duplicate. Audiophiles complain that the digital era, with its rampant copy-paste ethos and jumble of old and new formats, is an age of debased sound: lossy audio files created from nth-generation transfers; cheap vinyl reissues, marketed to analog-fetishists but pressed up from sludgy non-analog sources. “It’s the audio equivalent of the game of ‘Telephone,’ ” says Henry Sapoznik, a celebrated producer of historical compilation albums. “Who really would be satisfied with the sixth message in?”

 

 

 

The entire article is great - long and fully worth reading.

[Jud]

The article has some good information about monetizing back catalog with streaming.  I think I'm remembering correctly that something like half of last year's streaming revenues came from back catalog.  Since the companies usually own the masters, this means anything in the back catalog is fair game for further profit through downloads and streaming.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, esldude said:

Safety masters or 1st gen master copies.  Or like RT66 mentioned providence is hard to come by often. 

 

I read about various re-masterings in detail, and the new mastering guru can't determine exactly whether the record company really sent the masters or copies of the masters.  Often the record company isn't sure itself.  Sometimes they find more than one version of what is supposed to be a master.  Music remastering is as bad as the sausage factory.  You really don't want to know what goes into your sausage or what goes on there. 

Everyone I’ve ever talked to in the music business has said this as well. 

 

One recording engineer told me he was handed some tape to record over and found unreleased masters from “Little Stevie Wonder” on that tape. These cultural treasures are treated like easily replaceable commodities. It’s crazy. 

 

I also was present when an audiophile record label received the “master” of Getz / Gilberto for a special remaster. It was sent on a burned CD and sounded no different from the last CD rip. 

[jabbr]

So sad that we’ve lost cultural heritage — Coltrane’s Impulse!!! 😓😰

 

The lesson that aught to be learned is that we need to widely store copies of high resolution digital source as well as mastering! Think BitTorrent 😉

[esldude]

44 minutes ago, jabbr said:

So sad that we’ve lost cultural heritage — Coltrane’s Impulse!!! 😓😰

 

The lesson that aught to be learned is that we need to widely store copies of high resolution digital source as well as mastering! Think BitTorrent 😉

No record company would do that.  The cultural heritage to them is only a sales benefit.  They'd rather lose those recordings than risk some torrenting scheme get leaked and they lose all chance at profit.  

 

This isn't something new, been happening for many years.  I've wondered what the cost of good storage with all the pertinent information and safety masters in a second location really cost relative to the rest of the business.  Seems very short sighted, and always has to me, but maybe costs are greater than I'd think. 

[esldude]

So having read the article some, all the music portion of what was lost in the fire was only 2400 square feet of storage space.  Obviously you could spend not all that much to create a vault far more safe and secure than a metal warehouse building that was used.  Not all that much relative to the long term worth of what was lost.  Seems par for the course in the music biz since forever.  

 

And such a fine business, of course they lied and mislead for years about the fire.  

[esldude]

Seems to me one thing that could be done with at least digital archives would do plenty for everyone.  A way to authenticate the master files.  So the music company knows nothing has been switched on them.  A way music could be sold and people would be able to verify I do have a copy of the master (of course music companies really don't want this).   They could at least verify they have the master issued by the record companies which might be different.  All they need is to do checksums.  Record the checksums on their bar codes and store copies of checksums of digital masters in any number of places and make those checksums publicly available.  It need not be any more complicated than that. 

[firedog]

Aren't we glad that Sony digitized their  catalog to DSD all those years ago for archive purposes....One assumes they have a few backups. 

It really is amazing how often you read about some classic album from the 60's- to 80's and no one is sure where the actual master is. No fire needed. 

[Jud]

The article makes several things clear.

 

- Few if any people at the record companies regard 95% (if that low) of the back catalog as anything other than an expense.

 

- The value of the other 5% (if that high) only occurred to them once people began to buy versions of old music in other formats.

 

- Since reformatted music is selling nicely coming from sources other than original masters, why should they care about masters?

 

- Since these cultural treasures only matter to a small number of people, why spend money having them catalogued and stored?

[firedog]

14 minutes ago, Jud said:

The article makes several things clear.

 

- Few if any people at the record companies regard 95% (if that low) of the back catalog as anything other than an expense.

 

- The value of the other 5% (if that high) only occurred to them once people began to buy versions of old music in other formats.

 

- Since reformatted music is selling nicely coming from sources other than original masters, why should they care about masters?

 

- Since these cultural treasures only matter to a small number of people, why spend money having them catalogued and stored?

In other words, they couldn't give a **** for SQ or music history in most cases. The few exceptions are the cash cows like the Beatles ,Coltrane, and a limited number of additional artists whose catalogs still sell. 

[PeterSt]

7 hours ago, esldude said:

No record company would do that.  The cultural heritage to them is only a sales benefit.  They'd rather lose those recordings than risk some torrenting scheme get leaked and they lose all chance at profit. 

 

But I have MQA's !!

[sphinxsix]

11 hours ago, esldude said:

Music remastering is as bad as the sausage factory.  You really don't want to know what goes into your sausage or what goes on there. 

 

1 hour ago, firedog said:

In other words, they couldn't give a **** for SQ or music history in most cases.

Seems that in general they don't.. The music industry has screwed not only the musicians but also us - the listeners for decades. To paraphrase Frank Zappa they are only in it for the money after all with zero or little regard for anything else..

 

4 hours ago, firedog said:

Aren't we glad that Sony digitized their  catalog to DSD all those years ago for archive purposes.

All companies should have done so right after the hi-res formats had become available.

 

Some general conclusion - IMO the situation calls for a couple more music formats - MCQA (Master Copy Quality Authenticated), MCCQA (Master Copy Copy..) etc... and finally WTFKWTQA (Who The F..k Knows What's That but we authenticate our file's faithfulness to this source anyway)!   

 

[Jud]

I can't imagine Sony would have digitized their entire catalog. Would of course be happy to learn I was wrong, but it would be a huge and expensive undertaking, and the impression the article leaves is that the companies have exaggerated their efforts in this area.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I wonder if there is a major difference between labels that are / aren't public companies that need to hit quarterly numbers for shareholders. 

[sphinxsix]

32 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I wonder if there is a major difference between labels that are / aren't public companies that need to hit quarterly numbers for shareholders. 

IMO it's quite probable there is one. Only anarcho-sindicalism can save the world in the long run! 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I can only imagine the global outcry if the Louvre housed its collection in a tin shed and it burned down. The UMG fire destroyed several Mona Lisas and virtually "nobody" knows or cares. 

[wgscott]

Why aren't these recordings, after a certain period of time, deposited with the Smithsonian archives or something like that?  At the very least, they should be digitized at the highest possible fidelity (I am trying to side-step "resolution") and widely mirrored, ideally also made accessible through our country's vibrant and well-maintained public library infrastructure.

[PeterSt]

34 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I wonder if there is a major difference between labels that are / aren't public companies that need to hit quarterly numbers for shareholders.

 

It is not only about that "as such" and it is merely about how all has to be formally decent. So for example, Uber seems to be fine without being a pubic company, but now it is (since a few weeks) all kinds of analyses come forward which make you think "what ?". So you can't just lalala around once you are a pubic company. ALL has to be justified, all has to be accounted for and each small thing wrong is punished hard.

 

PS: You just said the same, I see.

[asdf1000]

A look at the Universal Music vault at Iron Mountain (Boyers, Pa) and general facility tour.

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

A look at the Universal Music vault at Iron Mountain (Boyers, Pa) and general facility tour.

 

 

So cool.