Back in June the New York Times Magazine reported that over 500,000 song titles had been lost during a fire in 2008; However, what was most alarming was that this information was never revealed to the artists. Tupac Shakur, Eminem (who luckily saved his masters just before), Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg have all been touched. The Times called it "the biggest disaster in the history of the music business".

Following a class action against Universal Music Group, UMG alleges that the plaintiff's lawyers commenced legal action without full knowledge of the situation. UMG states that not all of the artist's masters named in the lawsuit have been lost in the fire. In a recent statement, a spokesman for UMG said: "More than a month ago, without even knowing if the 2008 fire on the NBC / Universal Studios lot had affected their clients, plaintiffs' lawyers rushed to pursue unfounded lawsuits.UMG's dedicated global team is actively and directly working with our artists and their representatives to provide accurate asset information which we have and what could have been lost in the fire.Although our work is not yet finished, we have already determined that the original masters of many artists named in the trial have not was lost in the 2008 fire. We will not lose sight of the need to provide our artists with complete transparency, even though plaintiffs' lawyers continue to pursue these unfounded claims. "

Until now, the group, Hole, has dropped any lawsuit. Ed McPherson, their attorney, said: "Hole was dropped because UMG is adamant: no main Hole registration was lost.We agreed to drop Hole from the prosecution pending confirmation of the no-loss. "