Vevo is geared to launch tomorrow. As many of you know Vevo is going to be the Hulu of music videos. This means that those of you that are sick of MTV playing more reality shows than music videos these days will finally be able to get your fill of music videos again in one central place. Sony, Universal Music Group, and EMI Music have all agreed to place music video clips on Vevo too. YouTube technology will be used to power the video streaming. In order to promote the new service, Vevo has given 50 Cent a baseball bat to bash up some TVs playing his music video. Just in case you don’t get the metaphor in the video, Vevo wants you to stop watching music videos on TV and come to their website instead.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is challenging Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by selling music. Google spent the last several weeks preparing deals with the four major music labels: Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, EMI, and Universal Music Group. The new Google service is expected to be called Google Audio.
When Google Audio launches, I wouldn’t be surprised if YouTube changes their default music purchase promotion to their own service. Currently when watching music videos on YouTube, there is a link to buy the song on iTunes or Amazon.com.
I don’t expect Google to do very well in this service because iTunes has already monopolized the music download market. iTunes is the number one music retailer in the world, even beating Wal-Mart. Google attempted to challenge iTunes by selling videos through Google Video, but it did not have much of a business impact.
Vevo is a music video website that is a joint venture between Universal Music, Sony Music and YouTube. According to sources with paidContent, the company is out seeking funding based on a $300 milion valuation. Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff has been travelling across the country to meet with potential investors in order to get the project off the ground.
Vevo will be based on of New York City and Los Angeles. The company has been hiring engineers over the last several months. As of right now, it is unclear whether EMI and Warner will join the venture. As for Warner Music, CEO Edgar Bronfman has spoken against the idea publicly.
I would not be surprised if other labels jump on the opportunity to work with Vevo in the near future. Hulu has proven to the world that web video could replace television just like it could do with music television. Vevo can be followed on Twitter.com/Vevo.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) subsidiary YouTube and Universal Music Group are planning to launch a music video website together in order to increase both of their revenues. The Universal Music channel on YouTube is already one of the most subscribed to on the video website. The combined website will be called Vevo.
This deal is a major boost for YouTube because the video website is getting pressured to find additional revenue streams and is taking a lot of flack for not being able to pay fees for the rights to use their music and music videos.
Vevo will be wholly owned by Universal and it will feature higher quality videos than what is seen on YouTube itself. “The rationale is to help make Vevo a place that brands feel more comfortable,” stated Rio Caraeff, EVP of Universal’s eLabs division.
Universal hopes that Vevo will be comparable to Hulu. Vevo will syndicate videos through their platform called Vevo Music Network. Universal is planning to partner with EMI and Sony Music Group who have already renewed their contracts with YouTube. Partnering with Warner Music Group will be slightly more challenging because they have not been able to make a deal with YouTube in the past.
ARTISTdirect, Inc. is a Santa Monica, Calif.-based music news website. Recently, ARTISTdirect signed two deals that revolves around music lyrics. EMI Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing Group will allow ARTISTdirect to add the lyrics to over 1 million songs. The financial details of the deal were undisclosed.
“EMI has the publishing rights to some of the greatest, most beloved songs ever written and performed and we are truly delighted to be able to share them with our community,” stated Dimitri Villard, the Interim CEO of ARTISTdirect. “In the past, music fans have had to rely on user generated lyrics posted on the Internet that were often inaccurate or incomplete; this partnership helps create one of the largest repositories for official lyrics as written by the songwriters.”
This move competes directly with Gracenote, a subsidiary of Sony. Gracenote provides the lyrics through 80 music publishers, including EMI and Universal. Another competitor of ARTISTdirect is OHHLA.com.
