Vevo: A Hulu for Music Videos?

Can having the world's best-known online video brand be a liability? Perhaps so. On April 9th, Universal Music Group and YouTube announced a joint venture to create a new destination for music videos online, but one that won't be led by the YouTube brand. The site will be called Vevo and will launch sometime later this year.

The question is why would either company want to create a new destination, when YouTube is the Internet's top video site by far, and has global name recognition. Writing for CNET, digital media columnist Greg Sandoval suggested that "A standalone music site—which would feature traditional music videos and interviews, along with other artist-driven content—is designed to attract high-end advertisers, some of whom may have been skittish in the past about advertising alongside YouTube's user-generated videos."

In other words, YouTube has become synonymous with skateboarding accident clips, and that's not where advertisers want to be.

While the new site will be a wholly owned Universal subsidiary, according to an AP report, the plan is to bring in other labels over time. According to the AP, Universal's chief executive, Doug Morris, is currently talking to the heads of Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI about adding their content to Vevo. Certainly the audience would benefit if people could find content from all four major music labels at one destination, rather than having each company build its own destination.

At launch, the site will carry Universal's entire catalog of 10,000 music videos. Besides videos, the site will also carry custom programming giving a voice to the service, but no specifics have been announced. While YouTube has signed other major label partnerships lately, this one is unique since it involves creating an entirely new site and brand. According to a YouTube blog post announcing Vevo, YouTube "will provide the technology infrastructure that will power Vevo" and Universal will provide the content. The two companies will share ad revenue from the site.

Vevo content won't only be accessible on the site, however. Vevo will also launch a branded embeddable player, which can be inserted into pages on social networking sites and other Web pages. Access to music videos will be free, although viewers will see pre-roll ads up to 15 seconds long.

The site will also offer a shopping option, letting viewers buy audio copies of the song they're listening to from the iTunes Store or Amazon. Copies of the music videos themselves, however, won't be for sale.

While music videos are hugely popular with online video viewers, they've rarely been given the kind of treatment that Vevo will offer. More often they're given a channel on a larger site. Vevo's main competition will be two dedicated music video sites, MySpace Music and MTV Music. Both are tied to bigger, existing sites, however, and their appeal seems limited to people who frequent those sites. With its fresh launch and new name, Vevo at least won't have any baggage to deal with. Vevo aims to become the Hulu of music videos, and so far there's surprisingly little competition for the title.