YouTube and Universal announced they will launch a music video site in Google's latest effort to try and monetize its online video services.
The new site, Vevo, will launch in the next few months. It will be ad-supported and feature professionally made, copyrighted videos. In fact, all 10,000 of Universal's music videos will be available through the service, with YouTube and Universal sharing ad revenue.
Vevo will be completely owned by Universal, and the company is expected to pour millions into the project. YouTube will be responsible for providing the technology and structure of the site, while Universal provides funding and content.
YouTube has faced pressure from record labels and movie studios who have been continually displeased that the popular video sharing site won't pay higher fees to offer copyrighted content. YouTube has more than 100 million users in the United States alone.
It's not uncommon to find popular music videos on YouTube, but the site has been unable to generate significant revenue from users viewing video clips. The site's ad performance remains rather lackluster when its popularity is taken into consideration.
I enjoy viewing music videos on YouTube -- it's like an on-demand music service -- but I'm rather skeptical that either company will see success from this project. We will soon see if there are any added benefits of using Vevo as opposed to just looking for videos on YouTube.
In theory, it seems like both companies hope that having a dedicated site separate from YouTube will help draw in advertisers, but only time will tell if this strategy works. Unlike Hulu, which offers movies and TV episodes, Vevo will be dedicated specifically to music videos.
Is there a high enough demand for online music videos that this site will succeed?
