YouTube was set up on the 14th February 2005 by three PayPal workers, Steve Ched, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. It

is a website that allows users to watch, and upload video content for free and by the 21st April 2014 had 1 billion

users. Users can upload any genre of video to the site but the free service has helped the development of music videos and

seen their importance in the popularity of a song increase.

Key company case study YouTube

Music videos

• Not only has YouTube help increase the popularity of chart-topping songs it can also help increase the popularity of less well-known artists and help them to make it in the music industry. One example of this is Justin Bieber, his route to fame began on YouTube, when a video he posted of him singing was found by Scooter Braun, who tracked him down and eventually Bieber signed to Island Records in October 2008. This saw him rise rapidly to world fame and become a global superstar. As well as creating superstars it can also increase the fame of already relatively famous artists such as Psy, whose ‘Gangnam Style’ song currently has 2,216,423,289 views.