In 2009, YouTube announced that it had teamed up with Universal and Sony on a music video site called Vevo. Now, three years later, you’re probably pretty familiar with the brand. Even if you don’t visit Vevo.com, you’re probably used to seeing music videos from Vevo on YouTube if you ever search for music on the world’s most popular video site.
Well, YouTube’s deal with Vevo reportedly expires on Sunday, and Vevo (sometimes referred to as the “Hulu for Music Videos”) and Google (which owns YouTube of course) have not reached an agreement to extend the partnership, according to Peter Kafka at All Things D, citing “people familiar with negotiations”. Kafka writes:
But that doesn’t mean Vevo’s videos will disappear from YouTube, or that Vevo.com will go dark. The existing contract has what amounts to a 120-day extension, which essentially means that the real deadline for Vevo and Google won’t roll around for another four months.
That said, people familiar with the negotiations say the two sides are in “intense” discussions, with the hopes of wrapping something up much sooner than that.
Vevo ranked number four on comScore’s top online video sites in the U.S., behind Google Sites, Yahoo Sites, and NDN. The firm counted over 53,000 unique visitors for the month. YouTube had over 182,000, and no doubt, more than a few of those led to Vevo video views.
Google has expressed interest in renewing “relationships with valuable partners,” and one would have to assume that major music labels are considered as such, particularly with the amount of music searching that goes on on YouTube. Without VEVO’s music videos, users are going to have a hard time finding a lot of stuff they’re looking for. This is a pretty important deal for Google, as it seeks to get people staying on site more.
Earlier this year, Nielsen named Vevo YouTube’s top partner at 694,907 total streams in June.
YouTube just launched a redesign and extended its guide feature to all devices. It’s also making deals to have YouTube shows shown on airplanes.