exploremusic

Billboard reports that Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment will launch Vevo, their new YouTube-powered online music video service, on December 8th.

Why do the labels want their own private YouTube? I believe it’s a money issue, really. From what I’ve read, one problem that the majors have had with their music videos being streamed on YouTube is that premium advertisers have hesitated from investing because they aren’t crazy about their ads being on the site next to random amateur videos. With Vevo, there will be a target demographic, which is something advertisers like.

Of course, Universal and Sony will also be able to market their own product to the audience. Not only could they advertise similar and/or breaking artists, they could include info at the end of each video telling users what album the track appears on. Hey, they could include links on each video page to buy each track. I don’t know if they plan on doing any or all of those things, but it would make sense to me if they did.

The plan for this project originally involved Universal and Google. Now that the (very soon) launch date has been announced and Sony’s on board, will the other two major labels be far behind? Instead of people needing to figure out what label an artist is on in order to pick the right site to search for the video, Vevo could be a one stop shop for major label video content. I think Warner and EMI will come over to Vevo, because I can’t think of a reason why they wouldn’t want to. It would be the same benefits as having their own YouTube channels, but on a site that’s totally music-focused. They could push stuff they want to push up front with no trouble.

Now, will Vevo take off? The hardcore viewers will surely check it out when it launches and they’ll stick with it unless there’s some unexpected flaw. Then again, if it’s the only game in town, we’ll probably be patient even if there is something wrong with the site. As for the general public, I’m guessing Vevo’s success will only hinge upon people remembering to go there instead of going to YouTube for all their major label video needs, but it shouldn’t take too long to get "Vevo" in everyone’s head.

I’m already getting sick of typing "Vevo," and I predict that by this time next year I’ll be typing it as often as I type "YouTube" now.

So you’re prepared for December 8th, bookmark the site. Right now you can sign up for e-mail updates and you can follow Vevo on Twitter.