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In June, a New York Times investigation made the previously unknown revelation that a 2008 Universal Studios Hollywood fire destroyed a massive quantity of master tapes by a number of iconic artists across popular music history. Courtney Love and Hole joined Soundgarden, Steve Earle, and the estates of Tupac Shakur and Tom Petty to sue UMG for losses. Hole have now been dropped from that lawsuit, Variety reports.
An amended complaint, filed on Friday, dropped Hole as a plaintiff “solely based on UMG’s written assurances to Plaintiffs’ counsel that no Hole master recordings were lost in the fire.” The complaint continues: “At present Plaintiffs are not aware of information contradicting those recent assurances regarding Hole.” Pitchfork has reached out to Courtney Love’s representative for comment.
The lawsuit—the first legal case brought against UMG following the report—sought $100 million in damages. The plaintiffs claimed that Universal breached contracts by failing to protect the masters and should have shared any settlement funds with artists.
In a new statement, UMG announced intentions to provide artists with “full transparency.” They continued: “We have already determined that original masters for many of the artists named in the lawsuit were not lost in the 2008 fire.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyer Ed McPherson responded, “Well, isn’t that great! After 11 years of assuring artists that basically nothing was lost in the fire, UMG is actually conducting an investigation to see what was lost in the fire.”