Lady Gaga is first artist to reach 1bn video views

Gaga: Love her or hate her, you have to admit that the Telephone video is quite remarkable. Did someone say it's the new Thriller? Visible Measures has been tracking the Gaga's popularity and has announced via Mashable that Gaga is now the first music artists to top 1bn video views. Most of those are on YouTube and the less-well-known Vevo network, a joint venture between YouTube and Universal – and Gaga's video accounts for one quarter of all Vevo's visitors. Poker Face, Bad Romance and Just Dance have each racked up 374m, 360m and 272m views respectively, and fan campaigns that included a Facebook-organised National Lady Gaga Day have helped to ratchet up Telephone's popularity. Not that it needs much help. Visible Measures runs a top 10 of the "100m club" viral videos, currently topped by Soulja Boy's Crank Dat video with 722m views. The Twilight Saga is second with 640m views and Beyonce's Single Ladies has 522m. It's Gaga's consistency with must-see videos that makes her such a success online, and the reason she has become the first artist to top 1bn views. Some way down the line, those 1bn views must translate to music sales and justify Universal's strategy.