This article on the 2008 Universal fire will be the most important article you will read this week. It chronicles a staggering cultural loss as well as a (yet another) example of how little the major labels GAF about their responsibilities as keepers of this art.

Photo Illustration by Sean Freeman & Eve Steben for The New York Times. Source Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.

I don’t usually do a direct link to content on other sites (I would of course always love to have your eyeballs here reading my stuff), but the diligent and deep reporting that has been done by The Times, including some of the most coherent explanation I’ve ever seen as to precisely WHY the 2008 Universal fire was such an incalculable loss to our culture, merits my recommendation that you just go read this. Just go. Now.