Music Video JV Site Vevo Raising Money At $300 Million Valuation
Vevo, the Hulu-like site for music videos which for now is a JV between Universal Music, Sony Music and YouTube, is out raising money at a $300 million valuation, we have learned from multiple sources.
Context & Ripple Effects
Vevo is the Hulu playbook applied to music: Universal Music, Sony Music and YouTube have pooled their catalogs into a single premium, ad-supported video site instead of letting major-label clips circulate unmonetized. Hulu's own 2009 run-up frames both the promise and the risk — the JV signed its first international producer deals and planned an iPhone app, yet advertisers stayed wary even as viewing climbed.
The $300 million valuation comes from multiple sources cited by paidContent, and should be read as reported rather than confirmed; no other outlet pickup is evident. What is confirmed is the structure: the two largest labels plus YouTube own the company outright, meaning the content supplier and the equity holder are the same parties.
First-order effects
- A round closing at $300M would mark the labels' contributed catalogs as platform equity within months of the venture forming, and hand any new investor a seat beside owners who also control the entire video supply.
- YouTube converts its biggest licensing friction — unlicensed major-label videos — into a branded, rights-cleared property hosted on its own infrastructure.
Second-order effects
- Advertiser appetite is the swing variable: Hulu spent 2009 proving that big audiences alone did not dissolve brand buyers' caution, so Vevo's valuation holds only if music-video inventory prices like premium television.
- Labels outside the JV face a fork — negotiate access on worse terms, seek inclusion, or watch the premium video shelf consolidate around Universal and Sony.
Third-order effects
- If the Hulu template holds, recorded-music economics shift from selling units toward owning distribution, with labels carrying startup-style platform valuations on their balance sheets alongside catalogs.
- Private marks like this one begin pricing music IP by its advertising yield rather than by record sales, pulling label strategy toward whatever maximizes streamable, monetizable video.
The trend: Content owners are following Hulu's lead by consolidating their video into owned joint ventures valued like technology platforms rather than acting purely as licensors.