YouTube was founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim as a platform for users to upload and watch videos for free. By 2014, YouTube had over 1 billion users and helped popularize music videos, increasing their importance in making a song popular. The site also helped lesser known artists gain fame, such as Justin Bieber whose singing video was discovered on YouTube and led to his record deal, and increased the popularity of already famous artists like Psy and his "Gangnam Style" music video which has over 2 billion views.

1. 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

2. 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.