The Universal Music Group, which handles such musical artists as Sheryl Crow, Mariah Carey, and Jay-Z, has reportedly registered vevo.com as of November 2008, adding to the speculation that they’re considering setting up a YouTube Premium service that will host videos and related material from their properties.
This is potentially good news for fans who are tired of not being able to find high-quality footage of their favorite musicians’ concerts, music videos, and interviews, because those kinds of things are routinely removed from YouTube due to infringement. Instead, what results is a metric crap-ton of user-created work featuring people either lip-syncing to a popular song, or the track in question laid over a series of cut-together clips of episodes of House.
The hell of it is, that stuff is strangely popular, and generates tons of hits, which is how Google advertising makes its money. Let’s also not forget the virtually unregulated user comments that ride along with each video, which are nearly worth your sanity to read all in a block. So if vevo.com is to be successful, surely it will allow users to appropriate video materials for their own use?
Well, no, because that would obviate the whole reason for having a Premium service in the first place. So the problem remains: how will the UMG entice YouTube regulars over to its Premium site, when it will be stripped of most of the features that make YouTube so attractive in the first place? Can you see yourself possibly paying to access specialized content that will probably be appropriated and released over the ‘Net for free anyway?
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