Music Vault Opens Up Huge Cache Of Concert Videos On YouTube

Music fans, rejoice: You now have a new way to get lost in an endless YouTube rabbit hole. Three months after its initial launch, the Music Vault network has posted more than 13,000 videos across its various channels, giving viewers access to an incomparable collection of live concert footage.

The largest chunk of the Music Vault library lives on the network’s main YouTube channel, where 1,681 videos serve as a musical time machine spanning more than 50 years. Side channels provide more targeted offerings for fans of specific rock luminaries (such as Santana and the Grateful Dead) or individual genres (such as jazz or blues). A partnership with Paste Magazine also brings modern tastemakers to the network.

Music Vault’s videos come from a huge archive, one that includes many rare performances exclusive to the network. “After two years restoring, transferring, mixing and mastering thousands of tapes from our enormous archive, we’re thrilled and extremely proud to share this massive treasure with the YouTube music community,” said Music Vault content editor Bill Antonucci.

A press release from Music Vault and a playlist on the main channel highlight a few choice selections, including The Who’s famous 1970 show at Tanglewood and Ray Charles’ performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. However, as with the recently uploaded historical archive on the British Pathè’s YouTube channel, the best strategy is to simply jump into the Music Vault library to see what you can find. There’s more than 2,000 hours of content on there, so there’s sure to be something for everybody. We apologize if your productivity suffers as a result.