Vevo, a joint venture between Google's YouTube, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and potentially the other two major labels as well, plans to launch a video streaming site by the end of the year that is similar to YouTube, except that it will offer only "professional" content — beginners need not apply.
According to Billboard's sources, Vevo is currently in talks to have CBS and NBC — and possibly other networks — produce and license music-related video shows for the service.
A Sony Music spokeswoman declined to comment and Universal Music Group has yet to respond to our query, but these rumors are consistent with everything else we've heard about Vevo, in that it would lead to more premium, music-related content on the site.
The big idea behind Vevo is that advertisers don't seem willing to pay Google and the labels enough money to promote their content next to video on YouTube, because so much of it is made by amateurs. If you're trying to sell make-up to teens, for instance, it probably makes more sense to sponsor a Jonas Brother concert than it would to buy ads on YouTube.
On Vevo, however, the labels will ensure that there is no amateur content — only official music videos, interviews, well-shot backstage footage, and other professionally-made original programming about better-known artists are included. Vevo will syndicate these videos to other services — including YouTube — so they won't be available only in a single destination. But advertisers will be assured that if they advertise on Vevo, people will only encounter their brand messaging while engaged with "premium" content.
Music videos and backstage interviews are great, but if Vevo can line up new shows from CBS, NBC, and/or other networks (ABC and Fox are other rumored Vevo collaborators), it will offer a far stronger case in its bid to lure music fans from other, less profitable music and video sites, not to mention the MTV and VH1 television channels.
As Billboard correctly suggests, the resulting offering could beat MTV/Viacom to the punch when it comes to conquering the music video market online. It's no secret that the labels complain that MTV built an empire on their backs. In the olden days, when more people used to buy music, networks didn't have to pay to air music videos, because they were considered promotional.
Now, the music industry considers nothing promotional — an approach that makes sense, as its sales decline. The music video has become a product in its own right, and MTV and its sister site VH1 have shown that there's a healthy appetite out there for documentaries and reality shows about musicians.
If one or more television network signs with Vevo, the labels could have the last laugh this time around, while Viacom could be the one complaining.
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