https://www.okayplayer.com/music/2008-universal-studios-fire-destroyed-masters.html

The article just aggregates an NYTimes article which describes, in great, captivating detail, the events leading up to the fire which destroyed a reported 500,000 songs from artists ranging from Steely Dan, Quincy Jones, The Roots, and John Coltrane. It also touches on the coverup by UMG and the state of the music's industry's efforts to properly archive all of recorded music.

A sobering read but the writer holds your interest throughout. It's a long read - took me about a half hour but it's a great read and I generally don't like music journalism.

Here's the nytimes.com link:

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