Universal and YouTube To Create New Video Site

Universal Music Group and YouTube are working together to create a new website that would benefit both parties.

Universal Music Group and YouTube are working together to create a new website that would benefit both parties. YouTube, the site that encourages you to “broadcast yourself,” is loaded with music videos, some of which are authorized, but many of which are uploaded by tech-savvy fans. While YouTube has been adding links to Amazon.com and iTunes for viewers to purchase the featured tracks, these measures have yet to provide a significant financial benefit to the site or to the labels.

The biggest music label of them all hopes to change this. The proposed collaboration between Univeral and YouTube would create a “premium” site of high-quality, industry-sanctioned videos, tentatively titled Vevo. The theory is that the caliber of the site would attract better-paying advertisers, thus producing profits to be shared by the two companies. Vevo would not necessarily be limited to music videos, and could contain other content relevant to the artists. Talks between YouTube and Universal are still in the early stages.