Earlier today I told you all about the new VEVO video site that’s getting crazy buzz. Manufactured buzz, but buzz all the same.
Anyway, alot of artists are jumping on board with the new youtube like site who’s whole purpose is for the labels to take back ownership of how their content is distributed. If you didn’t know Universal, Sony and You Tube put it together. The Abu Dhabi Media Company invested $300 million into the new interactive website to hold onto a larger slice of any revenue generated. The goal is to build a top music destination with enough traffic to attract major advertising dollars.
““What we’re really doing is taking back control of everything…this is really like MTV on steroids, Universal CEO Doug Morris told CNet. We’re starting with that kind of audience. But now we’re in control of it. We don’t have to go through a middleman anymore.”
However, the site has so far been marred with issues. After a splashy launch party Tuesday attended by stars like Mariah Carey and Sheryl Crow, the site repeatedly crashed under the load of visitors.
It’s the kind of embarrassment you’d think that Google, with its legions of engineers and countless data centers across the globe, could have avoided.
But perhaps that kind of snafu was inevitable once stodgy music labels like Universal and Sony got involved.
Vevo was conceived as an attempt to squeeze more money out of music videos, one of the most popular forms of content on Google’s YouTube video site. After battling for years over music videos posted by YouTube users to the site, Google and the music industry decided to try being friends.
Vevo has been pitched as a “YouTube for music videos.”
The only problem being that as far as consumers are concerned, YouTube already is a YouTube for music videos.
Owen Thomas of MSNBC, like me, isn’t impressed with the hype of the new video site.
After visiting the site — which had limped back to life Wednesday morning — his impression was that users would stick with YouTube, where Vevo also exists as a channel. Bad Romance is all over the site — including competing versions posted by Vevo and by Universal Music Group.
The main difference between YouTube and Vevo? YouTube features a less-obnoxious preroll ad.
My prediction: After making a lot of noise, Vevo will fade away and become just another YouTube channel. Which is probably what Google intended all along.
Vevo is yet another example of how the upper heads at these labels and fourtune 500 companies don’t know what the hell they are doing. A notion echoed by commenter blakcars:
Its amazing how the majors believe in a free market when it comes to the online video market , but fails at this concept in their business practices.
I couldn’t agree more. Let’s hope they get better with it because so far I don’t see the value of that 300 million dollar budget. #imjustsayin
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Tags: Industry Bit, Mariah Carey, Vevo