David Brooks 13/06/2013

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What is Vevo

Vevo (stylized in lower case as vevo and formerly stylized in upper case as VEVO) is a joint venture music video website operated by Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Abu Dhabi Media with EMI licensing its content to the group without taking an ownership stake. The service was launched officially on December 8, 2009. The videos on Vevo are syndicated across the web, with Google and Vevo sharing the advertising revenue.

Vevo offers music videos from three of the “big four” major record labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI. Warner Music Group was initially reported to be considering hosting its content on Vevo, but subsequently formed a rival alliance with MTV Networks.

The vevo.com website is currently available only in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and The Netherlands. The website was scheduled to be worldwide; however, due to some licensing issues it’s still not available outside of these countries. Vevo is also available for a range of platforms including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Google TV, Boxee, Roku and the Xbox 360.

Versions of videos on Vevo with explicit content such as profanity may be edited. A company spokesperson stated: “Our censorship goal for launch was to keep everything clean for broadcast, ‘the MTV version.'” This allows Vevo to make their network more friendly to advertising partners such as McDonald’s. Vevo has stated that it does not have specific policies or a list of words that are forbidden. Some videos are provided with an explicit version in addition to the censored version. There is no formal rating system in place, aside from classifying videos as explicit or non-explicit, but discussions are taking place to create a rating system that allows users and advertisers to choose the level of profanity they are willing to accept.