Here’s a musical Daily Shock for you: the London riots have destroyed a lot of Sony musical property, 25 million pieces of property to be exact.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a fire at the Sony’s DADC warehouse has destroyed 25 million discs, hurting the inventories of over 150 independent labels. Also lost among the 25 million were DVDs, Blu-rays, and video games.
The people responsible for the fire, three teenagers, were arrested; two of the teenagers, aged 17 and 18, remain in custody, while the third one, aged 17, was released on bail.
The companies affected by the fire, which include XL and Domino (whose talent roster includes The Arctic Monkeys, Adele, and more) are trying to make sense of the event and assess their damages. According to the Guardian, The U.K.’s music royalty organization, PRS for Music, and the Association of Independent Music are planning providing relief loans to labels that may not survive due to the fire. HMV is also planning on helping out the affected companies with warehouse space for PIAS, and campaign LabelLove is raising money to help affected lables.
While in the scheme of things, lost music is the least of some people’s problems, the incident does show the scope of how the riots have affected every part of our lives, even down to pop-culture. Hopefully the riots have ended for good so things can get back to normal. You can read more about the fire here.