I can confirm that, despite what's written in the article, Buddy Holly's master tapes -- at least of the two albums released during his lifetime, which contain almost all his hits -- were not destroyed and are still in excellent condition. This may be true of the rest of his material as well. It also appears that the Lynyrd Skynyrd and Patsy Cline tapes were unaffected. Tom Petty's first two studio albums, along with a third and part of a live album, are diplomatically listed as "unavailable," but second-generation backup tapes do exist. All of his remaining master tapes survive. Apparently, Neil Diamond has possession of all his own master tapes.
Also, the article lists many British/Irish (Elton John, Cat Stevens, U2, The Police, etc.) acts from the '70s and '80s who were actually signed to U.K. labels such as Island or DJM, and A&M was merely their U.S. affiliate. Master tapes for these acts would remain with their European companies, and UMG would have only received "American masters" (i.e. second-generation copies of the masters used so LPs and CDs could be made locally).
Finally, some of the big names mentioned are from the WWII or earlier era, before tape recording existed. The "master tapes" of these artists were actually needledrops made for remastering purposes -- the original metal stamper parts (the real "masters" in these cases) are being preserved by the Library of Congress.
So, still a disaster, but, until we get a further public accounting of this (which may emerge from lawsuits promised for next week), possibly not quite as big a disaster as is currently being reported.
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