“I’ve done a lot of good things in my life, like going to Abbey Road and hearing Beatles master tapes,” says Michael Fremer. “But a couple of weeks ago I had one of the most amazing adventures I’ve ever had….”
Woah! Something better than getting up close with actual Beatles masters in Abbey Road?? This sounds pretty mind-blowing…
And it is! Michael heads to Universal Music Group’s Iron Mountain tape vault, located outside Pittsburgh – and, in the video below, he takes us with him on the full tour.
The vault is inside a former limestone mine and is one of Universal’s worldwide tape storage facilities, with a vast repository of audio and video tape holdings. (Hang on, did he say ‘one of’… so now I’m wondering how many others there could be, and where – and are any in Europe??).
I’ve often found myself feeling green with envy at Michael Fremer’s exploits and this one’s no exception, so I’m delighted that we get to go along ‘on the ride’ with him. The Iron Mountain facility looks enormous, almost like a whole underground city, it’s absolutely captivating to see it. There are also some fascinating insights shared by the team there, like how the company has had to come up with unique ways to catalogue and keep track of its immense tape holdings, and what happens when a licensee applies for the assets for a music album reissue, whether on tape or a digital file. And – a bit of a scoop – UMG showed Michael some master tapes that the New York Times claimed were burned in the 2008 Universal Mountain fire outside of Los Angeles, including the Buddy Holly catalogue!
As Michael says, “For most people this will be a first and only opportunity to see this facility in this almost two hour long presentation. Watch as much or as little as you wish, but if you don’t watch all of it, you’ll be missing out on some amazing footage shot deep within the mine.”
Dave Denyer: The Reel-to-Reel Rambler 