YouTube and Universal Music Group are remastering old music videos
YouTube is perhaps the single biggest public repository of music videos, but many are bit outdated, with visuals and audio designed for old TVs with single speakers, and others that could use a bit of an upgrade too. Many videos from major artists will soon look and sound much better though, as YouTube and Universal Music Group are remastering almost 1,000 of them “to the highest possible standards.”
You can check out more than 100 of them today, including from the likes of Boyz II Men, George Strait, Janet Jackson, Lady Antebellum, Lionel Richie, Meat Loaf, No Doubt, Gwen Stefani, Smokey Robinson, Kiss and Tom Petty. If you already have videos from them saved on YouTube or YouTube Music playlists, you won’t have to worry about finding new links. The remastered videos are replacing the previous versions, maintaining the same URLs, view counts and like numbers. You’ll notice when videos have had an HD upgrade when you see a “Remastered” label in their descriptions.
More videos will be upgraded each week, and YouTube and UMG plan to remaster all the 1,000 or so titles by the end of next year. Working with UMG means that YouTube should have access to high-quality recordings, and upgrades to the audio acuity should come as particularly welcome news for YouTube Music subscribers. Fingers crossed other labels sign up too, but in the meantime, you can check out some of the fruits of YouTube’s labors below.
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