YouTube Relaunches Music Homepage

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YouTube has relaunched the landing page for their music portal, the Google-owned video site announced today.

The new design seems to invite exploring and discovering artists, with Category genre links at the top of the page, such as Blues, Classical, Country & Folk, Electronic and Jazz. The launch also puts an emphasis on music playlists.

In related news, last night it was also announced that YouTube, American Express and VEVO have partnered on a new live concert-streaming initiative called “Unstaged.”

The partnership would seem an important windfall for VEVO, which is co-owned by two of the major labels (Universal and Sony) in partnership with Abu Dhabi Media Co., (though it lacks content from Warner Music Group.) While Hulu, the television and movie-streaming site, seems to have caught on with a new generation web-savvy film and television viewers, it’s yet to be seen whether Vevo will gain a foothold in the online music video market. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Vevo CEO, Rio Caraeff, says the site is garnering 50 million unique visitors monthly, though, he admits, about 80% is coming straight from YouTube.

“Unstaged,” which sounds like a cross between MTV’s “Unplugged” and YouTube’s live webcast of festivals like Bonnaroo, will add interactive elements for users, such as the ability to control camera angles and real-time voting on which encores the artist will play.

The first artist scheduled to play the five-part “Unstaged” series will be Arcade Fire, whose Madison Square Garden show will air on August 5th. John Legend and the Roots have also been confirmed for the series. Who will the next two artists be?

Start getting excited about Arcade Fire over at www.youtube.com/arcadefirevevo

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