Remember the days when labels would ‘delete’ singles once they wanted to clear the decks for the next release? Yesterday, it seemed for a moment that the unthinkable had happened, with the 5bn-views video for ‘Despacito’ disappearing from YouTube.
This was no label action though, nor – despite some headlines – was it a hack of YouTube itself. Instead, the issue was at Vevo.
Here’s the company’s statement: “Vevo can confirm that a number of videos in its catalogue were subject to a security breach today, which has now been contained. We are working to reinstate all videos affected and our catalogue to be restored to full working order,” a spokesperson told Music Ally. “We are continuing to investigate the source of the breach.”
As it makes clear, this wasn’t just ‘Despacito’ – videos by Drake, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Shakira were among those hacked, at least having their titles and thumbnail images changed.
For its part, YouTube made it clear that it was not the subject of the hack. “After seeing unusual upload activity on a handful of Vevo channels, we worked quickly with our partner to disable access while they investigate the issue,” said its spokesperson.
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