Vevo.com – A new website named Vevo.com is a joint venture by YouTube and Universal Music Group to try and get additional online revenue for music publishers by providing higher quality music videos.

Vevo.com screenshot

Unfortunately, Vevo.com is destined to fail because it doesn’t allow user generated content and it is yet another desperate attempt by music companies to breathe some life into the dead business model of the record companies.

YouTube itself has been under increasing pressure from music labels that are frustrated that the popular video site has been unable to pay higher fees for rights to use their music and videos because it doesn’t attract high-paying ads and it has a very low clickthrough rate on existing ads.

Currently, YouTube blocks all music videos from users in the UK and Germany because of lawsuits from music publishers trying to extort money from YouTube’s owner, Google Inc.

Vevo.com will be a music video hub wholly owned by Universal, a unit of French media group Vivendi, with a stated goal of attracting big-name advertisers and other content-owner partners.

“The rationale is to help make Vevo a place that brands feel more comfortable,” said Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal’s eLabs.

“Ultimately we think it will increase in effect the CPMs and drive more revenue to YouTube and more revenue to the music business than they can have today,” said Caraeff.

YouTube and Universal Music will share advertising revenue generated by the site. Both sides are betting that building a premium site will help increase advertising rates. Many big brand owners have avoided advertising alongside YouTube’s ad hoc mix of user-generated videos.

David Eun, Google’s vice president of strategic partnerships, said the higher quality professional content would appeal to advertisers.

“As we continue to work more closely with advertisers and potential sponsors we have a good sense of the type of content that they’re attracted to,” said Eun.

Industry watchers will likely compare Vevo with Hulu, a high quality online video service jointly owned by NBC Universal and News Corp, with about a third of the number of users of YouTube.

Vevo will also serve as a syndication platform called the Vevo Music Network which will power music videos on partner sites.

Universal Chief Executive Doug Morris is in talks with other music companies to give fans a more comprehensive music site. Universal is hoping to have all four major music firms on board before launching Vevo. 

“The feedback from the fan and advertiser is that ultimately they want all of the premium music content and not just Universal Music Group,” said Caraeff.

Prediction: Vevo.com will never get traction online and will fold or get sold within two years after heavy losses.

And that’s the latest news on the new music video website Vevo.com.

Tags: Music, music video, vevo, vevo.com, youtube, youtube video

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