In the beleaguered music industry’s latest bid to generate more money from its content, two top music labels on Tuesday will introduce Vevo, a Web site for music videos.
Vevo is co-owned by the Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and the Abu Dhabi Media Company. Vevo said Monday that it had signed up a third major music label, EMI Music, as a video provider, leaving only one holdout among the big four labels, Warner Music. Vevo said conversations with Warner were continuing.
Videos on Vevo will be hosted and streamed by YouTube, the video site owned by Google.
The site will come online in the United States and Canada on Tuesday evening.
“It will be a higher-quality experience around music and videos than anything else that’s currently out there,” Rio Caraeff, Vevo’s chief executive, said in an interview. Mr. Caraeff said the site would host 30,000 music videos by the end of the year. To underscore the exclusive nature of the Web site, Vevo will also carry original programs by artists for their fans.
Continue reading the main storyThe company, which was announced last spring, is similar in some ways to Hulu, the Web site for viewing television owned by a group of TV networks. Vevo will syndicate videos to an array of sites — including YouTube — and promote Vevo.com as a destination of its own.
“Vevo will work to restore the premium luster around music video inventory,” Mr. Caraeff said.
Music companies have licensed their videos to sites like YouTube for years, but have sought higher advertising rates and a greater share of the revenue.
Vevo intends to announce 15 advertising partners on Tuesday.
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