BigChampagne's Ultimate Chart (a/o February 10th):
1. “What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger),” Kelly Clarkson
2. “Set Fire to the Rain,” Adele
3. “Turn Me On,” David Guetta
4. “Rack City,” TYGA
5. “Good Feeling,” Flo Rida
6. “Smooth Criminal (Glee Cast Version),” Glee Cast
7. “Young, Wild & Free,” Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa
8. “Domino ,” Jessie J
9. “Sexy and I Know It,” LMFAO
10. “Ass Back Home ,” Gym Class Heroes
When Warner Music Group pulled its videos from YouTube, the great masses uploaded watered-down, mediocre replacements. Grainy vids recorded from television, 'chopped & screwed' (slowed down) versions, and other half-baked, detection-evading imitations suddenly took center stage. The whole thing was "so YouTube," in all of its uploaded messiness.
But with Vevo, it's either the real thing, or nothing, and Warner Music artists (like Death Cab for Cutie, Metallica, Gnarls Barkley, and Kid Rock) are simply missing (a search for Kid Rock actually produced a harsh 404, and then a prolonged white screen).
The reason is that the Hulu-style upgrade, now
live, takes the YouTube concept and changes its surroundings.
Bottom-scraping ads,
imitation copies, rank comments, and duplicate versions can be found on
the other side of town - namely, YouTube proper. But Vevo is now the
fancy neighborhood, and the partners want rents (CPMs) to reflect their
surroundings.
So, build it and they will come? YouTube is already hosting and promoting better-quality Vevo vids, and encouraging fans to make the upgrade. And, for those that like music videos - like millions of surfing and sampling fans - then Vevo is a great place to hang. Vevo is not an HD destination - not yet - though the videos are higher quality, widescreen and portable, and results are much more predictable. This is a controlled environment, and a far more reliable experience.
That said, Vevo still has some delivery issues to iron out. Server capacity may need to be ramped up, and early-stage bugs were hard to ignore (registration issues, occasional 'internal server errors,' and random 404s among them). Separately, EMI Music videos are also absent (Katy Perry, Coldplay, Robbie Williams), despite a late-stage licensing agreement.
But outside of the execution issues, the more important question surrounds advertising valuations. Namely, will CPMs elevate to expectations, or get dragged by generally weak advertising values online? Sources to Digital Music News note that Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff is pushing for CPMs north of $35, an astronomical valuation by most standards. Whether Vevo can attract better valuations is the multi-million dollar question, and another big monetization experiment for the music industry.
At the onset, Vevo backers and supporters showed confidence. A splashy launch party in Manhattan on Tuesday night featured glitzy names like Bono, who declared Vevo a savior of the industry. Others on hand included John Mayer and Sheryl Crow, as well as executives like UMG chairman Doug Morris and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. This is the future that is already getting a toast.
And, a few hours later, vevo.com launched, complete with higher-end vids, and big-name advertisers like AT&T, McDonald's, Nikon, and others. These advertisers are well-presented, and neatly tucked prior (pre-roll), alongside, or underneath the action. Now, Vevo is aiming to expand that group, at healthy price tags.
Review by publisher Paul Resnikoff.
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