YouTube’s new HD music videos let you relive your youth in vivid detail

By Anita George Updated June 19, 2019

You can now watch many of your favorite music videos in vivid HD thanks to YouTube’s latest partnership.

According to a blog post published by the video-sharing site, effective Wednesday, June 19, YouTube users can watch more than 100 “remastered” music videos as a result of a partnership between YouTube and Universal Music Group (UMG). While YouTube is starting the rollout of its new HD music videos with 100 of them, the website also announced that up to 1,000 music videos will be released in the HD format by the end of 2020.

The new HD versions of these music videos are intended to be a replacement for the original SD (standard definition) videos. And so these HD videos are expected to keep the same URL, view counts, and the number of likes as the former SD videos. With the new video upgrades, it’s expected that the viewing experience of these videos should improve, regardless of what kind of screen you are viewing them on.

Users will be able to tell if a music video has been remastered by at least one of two ways: First, remastered music videos should have a #Remastered hashtag just above the video title. Second, the video description should also contain the phrase “REMASTERED IN HD!” It’s also worth noting that users can expect to see new remastered HD music video titles added every week.

As many of the currently remastered videos are for songs that were released decades ago, older users can particularly appreciate the chance to relive and rediscover beloved songs from their youth. So far, YouTube has released HD versions of music videos from many iconic artists, including Tom Petty, Janet Jackson, Billy Idol, Beastie Boys, The Killers, Lionel Richie, No Doubt, Lady Gaga, and Smokey Robinson, just to name a few.

It’s not surprising that YouTube decided to remaster classic music videos. Nostalgia is not just fodder for movie and television reboots. It’s a highly marketable cultural trend that is still going strong and upgrading our favorite music videos seems like a smart way to keep up with a demand for “blast from the past” entertainment.

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Computing Writer

Anita has been a technology reporter since 2013 and currently writes for the Computing section at Digital Trends. She began…

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