Music Video Distribution Won't Change Much As Vevo Finally Succumbs To YouTube

I wonder how many times YouTube viewers watched an "official" music video from their favorite artist and saw the Vevo logo on the video or in the song's description. I wonder how many actually thought to themselves, "What the heck is a Vevo?" That, my friends, was the main problem of the major record labels' ill-fated attempt to compete with YouTube. Now, after nine years, the majors have finally given in and closed the Vevo site and mobile apps in a complete capitulation to the video distribution giant.

Vevo (which stands for "video evolution") was the majors' attempt to increase advertising revenue from their artists' videos relative to what YouTube was paying. In theory, it was a winner. We put our videos on our own service and then use our own dedicated salesforce to sell high-end advertisers who are afraid of music videos on YouTube, thereby keeping all the revenue and avoiding the dreaded YouTube royalty split. read more