British chart sensation and former US VEVO LIFT artists One Direction have smashed the record for the most number of video views in 24 hours on VEVO, beating Justin Bieber’s previous record with 8.24m views of their new video, Live While We’re Young, in the first 24 hours. One Direction were selected for VEVO’s influential emerging artist programme, LIFT, in March 2012, and saw their US audience grow exponentially during the eight week cycle. 

Commenting on the boost VEVO gave to the band in America, Steve Barnett, chairman of One Direction’s American record label, Columbia, said:

“We begged for the VEVO LIFT, it’s instant — the numbers were quite extraordinary. It was a massive part of our success in America.

“VEVO had more impact than anything else [for One Direction]. I’ve never seen anything work as quickly.”