When I was searching for Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas video a couple weeks ago, I noticed a Vevo overlay that played on the YouTube video. It looked as though whatever Vevo was had taken over Mariah’s page. I thought nothing of it and kept it moving until I saw the same overlay on Timbaland’s YouTube channel last week. I thought it was weird to see an artist’s username changed from artist to artistVEVO, such as TimbalandVEVO, so I did a little research on Vevo. Vevo is a new platform that will offer video provided by three major labels, EMI, Sony Music Group, and Universal Music Group. Vevo will host 85 percent of the videos while YouTube will host the remaining 15 percent.

I think Vevo will completely change the user experience on YouTube. The platform provides higher quality videos, but it doesn’t come with the cost of advertisements being played prior to a video starting based upon your aggregate usage. For me- that is beyond aggravating. I hate seeing ads where I don’t want them. However, there are some benefits to the platform. When watching on YouTube, you are guaranteed the original version of the video. When you embed the video on an external site, you get the high quality version of the video but the Vevo overlay is not shown.

On each artist’s Vevo YouTube page, Vevo displays links to its website, Vevo.com. On the platform, you can watch an artist’s official video with lyrics, extra behind the scenes footage, and interviews. Plus, you can create a playlist of videos – similar to the way you can with Grooveshark.

People are referencing Vevo as the Hulu for music videos. One negative about Hulu is that it does not include all content. For example, I’ve seen a television series that only included two episodes out of five seasons of video.I hope that Vevo can get the music video library of all of the participating record labels uploaded. I also hope that the platform can upload the music videos as soon as they are produced. So much of ambiguous uploading is caused by labels and artists uploading videos weeks after they are produced. Understanding that people want content quick and in the best quality available will help Vevo be successful. People will embrace the new platform if it honors these two requirements.