Sony Music Entertainment has joined Universal Music Group’s Vevo online music video streaming service.
Although exact details of the deal were not disclosed, but sources say Sony is an equity partner in the new venture as well as a provider of content.
In that regard, Vevo is turning out to be exactly what Universal had in mind when it first announced the service in early April—a Hulu for music. The various networks providing content to the Hulu video streaming site also have equity in it, a model Universal is using to get buy in from other labels. Additionally, several brand advertisers are also in discussions to become similar partners in the service, which has not yet gone live.
Vevo is Universal’s vision for monetizing music videos online. The intent is to create a single point of availability for music videos in order to reduce supply and thereby increase advertising revenues. Powered with YouTube technology, music videos and other content from Vevo will appear on YouTube via a special Vevo-branded channel, on the Vevo site, in a special Vevo-branded embedded video player, and syndicated to other sources of online video.
Sony is the first label to join Universal in the Vevo effort. Universal eLabs executive VP Rio Caraeff was named president of the new service.
