UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP, which you may remember as the conglomerate that reportedly misled the public about the loss of masters and other historic assets in a vault fire 11 years ago and that more recently has found various ways to downplay the importance of those masters (SVP: "Sometimes the master source is not the best source to work from"; CEO: "all of the released recordings lost in the fire will live on forever"), had an interesting announcement on Wednesday. The company, in partnership with YOUTUBE, said it's in the process of upgrading 1,000 of its most popular music videos—by going back to original film and video sources. The masters, as it were. It turns out that videos originally edited for small TV screens, and later uploaded to YouTube via dubs of old VHS tapes, don't look so hot on high-definition 70-inch screens. And so the company has embarked on a multi-year archival project to fix them. "Once that dirty coloring is removed, it’s a lot more vital somehow," BILLY IDOL, whose "WHITE WEDDING" and "DANCING WITH MYSELF" are among the videos getting a facelift, tells the NEW YORK TIMES. Good news: The master footage of the videos exists, and LADY GAGA and BOYZ II MEN are going to start looking better for it. Bad news: This is exactly what can't be done with vintage recordings whose masters no longer exist. They can be upgraded and reissued in all sorts of ways, but if the primary source went up in flames, then so did the best way of making remasters for the future audio version of today's 70-inch hi-def TVs. And why will those remasters matter? It's the difference, in the words of Universal EVP MICHAEL NASH, between "grand cru" and "drinking wine out of a box." That's what was lost on the lot of UNIVERSAL STUDIOS in 2008... Speaking of Univeral, VIVENDI is "not in a hurry" to sell up to 50 percent of the company, but expects the process to start by the end of this year, CEO YANNICK BALLORÉ says... For the first time, submissions for the GRAMMY AWARDS can be made via links to streaming services; previously, CDs were required. But sorry, NAPSTER and YOUTUBE MUSIC. The RECORDING ACADEMY will accept AMAZON MUSIC, APPLE MUSIC, SPOTIFY and TIDAL links only... Did you know ARETHA FRANKLIN helped inspire OUTKAST's "HEY YA!"? And that TIM ROBBINS helped JENNIFER LOPEZ name her debut album? And that GUNS N' ROSES did no such thing for the BEASTIE BOYS, but did find some common ground? MusicSET: "I'm Sorry Ms. Jackson, I'm in the Studio: Album Oral Histories Vol. 4"... Fun TWITTER thread, via JESSICA HOPPER: "What is your favorite band/artist that basically made the same record over and over for their entire career?" Among my favorite answers: NEUROSIS, DJ KHALED... DEF LEPPARD says yes to BROADWAY, 10 years later... RIP PHILIPPE ZDAR and JIM PIKE.