said he was forming a team of researchers to provide artists with definitive information and confirmed that UMG had suffered a serious loss of archival material. Grainge wrote: "While I've been somewhat relieved by early reports from our team that many of the assertions and subsequent speculation are not accurate, one thing is clear: the loss of even a single piece of archived material is heartbreaking." He wrote that it was "completely unacceptable" that their artists did not know the details and pledged to deliver "answers". On June 26, Kraus issued a memo to staff which detailed UMG's plan to determine which assets had been affected. A month after the story broke, Kraus issued an internal note to Universal staff, which claimed that his research at the time had found only 22 original master recordings by five artists had been lost in the fire, and that backup copies had been found for each lost master. He added that UMG had been fielding requests from over 200 artists and their representatives. Kraus said his team had reviewed over 26,000 assets by 30 artists, of which 424 assets (including 349 audio recordings) might have been lost. On November 4, 2019, Scott Edelman of Gibson Dunn, an attorney for UMG, told U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt that UMG is the undisputed owner of the recordings and that artists' contracts provide for payments through royalties, not insurance claims. A February 2020 court filing by UMG confirmed that master tapes from at least 19 artists had been damaged or destroyed in the fire. The artists whom UMG confirmed were affected are Bryan Adams, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, David Baerwald, Beck, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, Jimmy Eat World, Elton John, Michael McDonald, Nirvana, Les Paul, R.E.M., Slayer, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, the Surfaris, Suzanne Vega, White Zombie and Y&T. However, Billboard wrote that "UMG says original digital master recordings for Nirvana, Beck, Bryan Adams, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Eat World, Suzanne Vega, White Zombie and Yesterday & Today were affected, but it has replacements or digital clones of these assets. R.E.M had one song from a soundtrack affected but UMG has copies in the same format." List of artists affected, according to The New York Times According to The New York Times Magazine, artists whose original master recordings were destroyed in whole or part in the 2008 fire include: 38 Special