photo: Los Angeles County Fire Department
The music industry, like many other entertainment sectors, has been heavily impacted by raging California wildfires.
Over the past decade-plus, Los Angeles has gradually become a hub for the music industry. So the impact of a natural disaster like this one is unfortunately impacting a lot of people throughout the business.
Just blocks from DMN’s offices in Santa Monica, you can see the fires raging to the north in Malibu, with smoke permeating the sky. That’s a vista shared by lots of other major music companies in the region, including Universal Music Group and Sony Music Publishing, both down the block from us.
This is obviously hitting home for us and a lot of people in the region, both inside and outside of the music industry.
Here’s the fairly depressing update of who’s been impacted the most in our business and beyond. Please update us below with more information if you know of someone impacted (hopefully it’s not you).
Michael Plen (INgrooves)
The well-known music marketing/promotional executive has lost his home entirely. Plen is VP Marketing & Promotion at INgrooves, and he’s reported that his family is safe but his home destroyed. The Plen clan might be looking for a place to crash, if you’ve got some spare room.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help Plen and his family here.
Miley Cyrus
Just this morning, we learned that Miley Cyrus lost her entire home to the fires. Cyrus purchased the $2.5 million residence in 2016. “My house no longer stands but the memories shared with family & friends stand strong,” Cyrus tweeted. “I am grateful for all I have left.”
Neil Young
Young reported that he has lost a home in the fire, though we’re not sure of the details. Young reported the news alongside a strongly-worded response to comments by Donald Trump, who blamed the fires on poor forest management and threatened to withhold federal funding as a result.
“California is vulnerable — not because of poor forest management, as DT (our so-called president) would have us think,” Young responded in an essay posted on his ‘Neil Young Archives site. “As a matter of fact this is not a forest fire that rages on as I write this. We are vulnerable because of Climate Change; the extreme weather events and our extended drought is part of it… Our temperatures are higher than ever here in our hottest summer on record.”
Robin Thicke
Thicke’s home was totally destroyed, according to information first revealed by his girlfriend April Love Geary. “Family is safe! Praying for everyone out here!” Thicke post on Instagram while showing his evacuation route.
Kanye West
West has not commented, though Kim Kardashian has reported that the Kardashian-West family has evacuated and are staying at a nearby hotel. But this goes further: TMZ has now reported that West/Kardashian actually hired a private fire-fighting team, which helped to save surrounding homes from also going ablaze.
Other Evacuees
So far, the evacuation list includes the residences of Cher, Melissa Etheridge, Pink, Lady Gaga, though there are few details beyond that.
At last count, more than 83,000 acres were destroyed and nearly 200 structures destroyed.
Actor Gerard Butler’s home has also been burned, and a long list of other celebrities have been evacuated. The storied Paramount Ranch production set in Agoura Hills, currently in use by Westworld, has also been destroyed.
Others evacuating include: Alyssa Milano, Rainn Wilson, Orlando Bloom, Will Smith, Guillermo del Toro, and James Woods, according to unconfirmed reports.
“This is the most destructive and devastating fire that I’ve witnessed since the 1993 fires,” Malibu City Councilman Skylar Peak remarked.
At present, the communities of Malibu, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Hidden Hills, West Hills, Monte Nido, Gated Oaks and Topanga have all been evacuated.
We’ll be updating with more information as we have it. Please update us with any additional information.
You guys forgot Soulja boy