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Vevo To Shut Down Site, Giving In To YouTube Empire (rollingstone.com)

Vevo, the video-hosting service founded in 2009 as a joint venture between the big three record companies, is shutting down. The company announced in a blog post Thursday that it is shuttering its mobile apps and website, and that "going forward, Vevo will remain focused on engaging the biggest audiences and pursuing growth opportunities." Vevo is almost entirely succumbing to YouTube. Rolling Stone reports: The major record labels set up Vevo -- an abbreviation for "video evolution" -- in 2009 as a designated streaming service for music videos that would ideally bring in greater revenue from more high-end advertisers. Via a distribution deal with YouTube, it received a cut of revenue from putting its music videos on the Google-owned site. But YouTube's might has grown: The video-streaming service recently took Vevo's branding off its music videos, while also securing permission under a new licensing deal to sell Vevo's clips directly to advertisers, cutting out the smaller company's sales force. Though Vevo has been trying to peel away from its dependence on YouTube by touting its own suite of apps and offerings for years, it seems those efforts haven't been met with much success. "Our catalog of premium music videos and original content will continue to reach a growing audience on YouTube and we are exploring ways to work with additional platforms to further expand access to Vevo's content," the company said in its blog post. Vevo users on its website and Android, iOS and Windows Mobile apps will receive a tool to migrate their playlists to YouTube.

7 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Well, there goes the competition... by dublin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After Google's extremely heavy-handed demonitization and de-platforming of content producers that simply violate their increasingly puritan ideas of Political Correctness (viz, Dennis Prager's Prager U, etc.), I was really hoping to see the alternative video sites like Vevo start to take up the slack.
    With the death of Vevo, which was clearly one of YouTube's largest viable competitors, does a free and open video platform alternative to YouTube even exist anymore? (Seriously, I want answers/suggestions here...)

    --
    "The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last ./ post
    1. Re:Well, there goes the competition... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Informative

      With the death of Vevo, which was clearly one of YouTube's largest viable competitors, does a free and open video platform alternative to YouTube even exist anymore?

      What about Vimeo?

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Well, there goes the competition... by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

      Vimeo's guidelines impose some practical problems. The biggest is a ban on "commercial content". I failed to find a bright line between permitted "showcase your creative work" and prohibited "Product demos and tutorials". Another is that only a video's author can upload it, not just someone with permission to upload on the author's behalf. This means videos created by a minor or by someone behind a harshly capped Internet connection can't be uploaded at all.

    3. Re:Well, there goes the competition... by cdsparrow · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I guess it's all up to pornhub now...

  2. This is not good by AbRASiON · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As per all Youtube articles the past few months, we NEED a competitor.

    I do very much wish, these smaller groups would band together with a porn group or something and make an alternative. Youtube continues to censor people who don't fit the current groupthink narrative.

    While "SJW values" are infact generally a positive thing for the world, heavy handed pushing of them, 'opposite racism' (fuck whitey) and what have you is becoming quite excessive across the Internet. Main issues being people like Twitter, Youtube are /almost/ *entirely fine* with people outright saying deplorable things about whites and or males, but if you say something even remotely controversial in another direction you're taken offline. It need not even be harmful or racist, just to be perceived as against the current hard left groupthink.

    Youtube is regularly censoring people like this. CountDankula for example made a particularly hysterical mockery video of his pet Pug doing a nazi salute when he says "seig heil" to the pug. Is it dark humour? Hell yes. Is it utterly hilarious? I believe so.
    Monty Python, Mel Brooks would've done that kind of thing without an issue.

    Long story short is people on the Youtube platform, who have built an ongoing living and income can be destroyed at the drop of a hat, due to algorithm changes and censorship. Be it the visibility of your videos or just outright de-monetization (but Google will gladly still run ads on the video, just the person who created it, doesn't get a thing)

    I don't think we need a group of gentlemen (or women) in white bedsheets saying "we must kill all the " but there's certainly a line of centrist (not even right wing) talk which is being suppressed. Because if you're not far left nowadays, YOU'RE A NAZI.

    Long story short. We need a competitor, to keep Google in shape and that's going to require some serious resources unfortunately.

    1. Re:This is not good by fafalone · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have to disagree that most "SJW values" are a good thing for the world.
      -Cracking down on 'hate speech' is a limitation on free speech that apart from being inherently wrong, the laws they seek will absolutely be used to silence views that are not hateful. Take one of the popular targets that SJWs want shut down because "hate speech": Charles Murray. The complaint is that simply acknowledging racial IQ differences is hateful, which is absurd. Even if you disagree with some of his conclusions, it's a valid point for debate. Then you have the much bigger problem, what will Republicans consider hate speech when they wield the power of hate speech laws?
      -SJWs believe that a meritocracy is a tool of white male supremacy. So their solution is to simply discriminate based on race in the opposite direction. Lessen the requirements for everyone except white men and Asians. The problems with this should be obvious to anyone still capable of critical thought; it could even wind up costing lives, for example FDNY not requiring women to meet the physical standards. We should address the underlying reasons for inequality where possible, but acknowledge that there are differences and it's ultimately not right to say "because of the color of your skin or whats between your legs, you're held to a different standard".
      -SJWs believe political correctness is essential; that there's no room for jokes that offend a disadvantaged group, and that inadvertent 'microaggressions' are worthy of punishment. It's elevating the feelings of the most sensitive person above everyone elses. That's what's behind a lot of the YouTube et al. situations; those most easily offended determine what's acceptable.
      -A core tenet of SJW belief is that due process is a tool of the patriarchy when it's applied to sexual matters, and should be discarded. Guilt is absolute upon accusation, and the accuser is not open to challenge. Factual inaccuracies in the story don't matter, and no statute of limitations should exist. Further, if a slightly buzzed woman and completely wasted man have sex, the man is responsible for his actions, the woman is not, and it was rape despite her initiating. Consent is something that can be withdrawn retroactively-- one college has even updated its rules to reflect this.
      -In education, SJWs show little interest in boosting minorities, instead preferring to achieve equality by reducing the quality of education for high achievers, because they're disproportionately white and Asian.

      Many SJW values are toxic and regressive. They're not about equality, they're about punishing the inequality of the past by transferring the groups who benefit from it. What's worse, they label people like me, who favor color-blind merit-based systems, extensive reform to the criminal justice and education policies that maintain inequality, even full trans bathroom and equal protection rights.. and spent this entire week on /. railing against the right and police abuse.. as no different than a nazi because I defend free speech, due process, and evidence-based group differences existing (though largely irrelevant)... and if SJWs know anything, it's that all those must be sacrificed.
      What's good for the world is equality, where ones race doesn't matter, where ones sex/gender doesn't matter. Where we're all just people. Where everyone can voice their ideas, and everyone receives equal treatment under the law. SJWs don't want that.

    2. Re:This is not good by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Informative

      Vevo is not a competitor to YouTube.

      It's actually a site that the music industry created to host music videos. Yes, the music industry. Presumably they had plans for it, probably some sort of subscription thing, but it never panned out.

      Its a music industry thing because on YouTube, you'll find lots of "VEVO" titled channels (usually like ArtistVEVO), which are the "official" music videos of the artist.

      Here's a nice video that explains what Vevo actually was:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      As for your other stuff - there is plenty of competition - Vimeo and DailyMotion are the bigger competitors to YouTube, and have been around just as long. There's also LiveLeak and others. And there are plenty more that launched since the "adpocalypse" started.

      The only thing you need to know is the problem is not YouTube. YouTube censored few videos, the vast majority of them are de-monetized. As in the creators no longer make money from them, and the simple reason for that is because no advertiser is willing to advertise on those channels.

      Back before the President made it his personal goal to find new ways to offend people, nobody cared. But it all changed when raping became "not a big deal" or "everyone throws themselves at me" and the like, and then advertisers suddenly gave a big crap about where their ads ended up. It caused YouTube to lose a LOT of big name advertisers (often with the "we're re-evaluating our online marketing strategies" comment, or "we're not happy with our online marketing return on investments").

      Then it happened again, and YouTube lost even MORE advertisers.

      It's caused the entire internet industry to have to re-evaluate and make tough decisions because you have to remember ad people have the thinnest skins around, and unless you're charging money from viewers directly (like some of the new sites do), or using those smaller scammy ad sites (you know, the ones that advertise on torrent sites and bring plenty of pop ups and malware and fake download buttons), there really isn't much to go around

      Yes, there are a few that charge per view - even one I think is blockchain based.

      You might call it the YouTube bubble bursting - the era of any content on YouTube and monetizing it all is over. YouTube has to implement even more rules because the few advertisers left over has to support the site, so the rules for monetization have gotten stricter.

      Unfortunately, it also had the side effect of some reputable channels chasing "easy click bait" money now too, which I really hate.