Over the next twelve months, YouTube and UMG are planning to remaster over 1000 music videos, with a new visual being rolled out via artist’s channels every week. Among the first groups of music videos to be remastered include Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ as well as works from Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga, Tom Petty and more. The partnership was unveiled today alongside a digitally remastered version of Beastie Boys seminal 1994 visual ‘Sabotage’ – watch that in all its digital glory below.
As explained by The New York Times, most of the videos set to be remastered were originally created to be played on now-outmoded formats, resulting in grainy visuals and poor audio quality when played on the high-definition screens of today. Billy Idol, who has had six clips upgraded by YouTube and his label, has expressed his pleasure at the two working together to enhance his works for the modern music canon, stating “It gives these videos a chance against the modern high-quality definition. And I’m forever that age in these videos — it’s kind of fantastic.”
However, it hasn’t all been fantastic for Universal Music Group recently…