Vevo



Vevo is an American multinational video hosting service founded on December 8, 2009 as a joint venture between two of the "big three" record companies, Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME). It is based in New York City and its shareholders now consist of both UMG and SME as well as Abu Dhabi Media and Google after it took a 7% share in 2013, with the third "big three" company, Warner Music Group (WMG) joining Vevo in August 2016.

Vevo hosts music videos from both Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment syndicated on YouTube and its website, with Google and Vevo sharing advertising and similar benefits. EMI also licensed its library of videos for Vevo shortly before its launch and its acquisition by UMG in 2012. Originally, Warner Music Group was reported to be considering hosting its content on the service after it launched, but formed an alliance with rival MTV Networks (now Viacom Media Networks). In August 2015, Vevo expressed renewed interest in licensing music from Warner Music Group, and its deal with WMG was completed on August 2, 2016, making the entirety of the "big three" record companies' music eligible for licensing for Vevo.

History
The concept for Vevo was described as being a streaming service for music videos (similar to the streaming service Hulu, a streaming service for movies and TV shows after they air), with the goal being to attract more high-end advertisers. The site's other revenue sources include a merchandise store and referral links to purchase viewed songs on Amazon Music and iTunes. UMG acquired the domain name vevo.com on November 20, 2008. SME reached a deal to add its content to the site in June 2009. The site went live on December 8, 2009, and that same month became the number one most visited music site in the United States, overtaking MySpace Music.

In June 2012, Vevo launched its Certified awards, which honors artists with at least 100 million views on Vevo and its partners (including YouTube) through special features on the Vevo website.

Vevo TV
On March 15, 2013, Vevo launched Vevo TV, internet television channel running 24 hours a day, featuring blocks of music videos and specials. The channel is only available to viewers in North America and Germany, with geographical IP address blocking being used to enforce the restriction. Vevo has planned launches in other countries. After revamping its website, Vevo TV later branched off into three separate networks: Hits, Flow (hip hop and R&B), and Nashville (country music). Vevo shut down the service during the first half of 2016 as part of a site wide redesign.

During the run of the service, its schedule and programming was heavily repetitive. Many videos would play twice within an hour and a majority of the videos shown were current and popular videos. Programming shows such as the Top10Now and Vevo Lift would air several times per day. Since the service has been shut down, its apps that haven't been updated (such as the one for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One) just play the Top10Now in an infinite loop.

Availability
Vevo is available in India, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The website was scheduled to go worldwide in 2010, but as of January 1, 2017, it was still not available outside these countries. Vevo's official blog cited licensing issues for the delay in the worldwide rollout. Most of Vevo's videos on YouTube are viewable by users in other countries, while others will produce the message "The uploader has not made this video available in your country." The Vevo service in the United Kingdom and Ireland was launched on April 26, 2011.

On April 16, 2012, Vevo was launched in Australia and New Zealand by MCM Entertainment. On August 14, 2012, Brazil became the first Latin American country to have the service. It was expected to be launched in six more European and Latin American countries in 2012. Vevo launched in Spain, Italy, and France on November 15, 2012. Vevo launched in the Netherlands on April 3, 2013, and on May 17, 2013, also in Poland. In September 29, 2013, Vevo updated its iOS application that now includes launching in Germany. On April 30, 2014, Vevo was launched in Mexico. Vevo is also available for a range of platforms including Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows 8, Fire OS, Google TV, Apple TV, Boxee, Roku, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.

Edited content
Versions of videos on Vevo with explicit content such as profanity may be edited, according to a company spokesperson, "to keep everything clean for broadcast, 'the MTV version. This allows Vevo to make their network more friendly to advertising partners such as McDonald's. Vevo has stated that it does not have specific policies or a list of words that are forbidden. Some explicit videos are provided with intact versions in addition to the edited version. There is no formal rating system in place, aside from classifying videos as explicit or non-explicit, but discussions are taking place to create a rating system that allows users also and advertisers to choose the level of profanity they are willing to accept.

24-Hour Vevo Record
The 24-Hour Vevo Record, commonly referred to as the Vevo Record, is the record for the most views a music video associated with Vevo has received within 24 hours of its release. The video that currently holds this record is "Hello" by Adele with 27.7 million views.

In 2012, Nicki Minaj's "Stupid Hoe" became one of the first Vevo music videos to receive a significant amount of media attention upon its release day, during which it accumulated 4.8 million views. The record has consistently been kept track of by Vevo ever since. Total views of a video are counted from across all of Vevo's platforms, including YouTube, Yahoo! and other syndication partners.

On April 14, 2013, Psy's "Gentleman" unofficially broke the record by reaching 38.4 million views in its first 24 hours. However, this record is not acknowledged by Vevo because it was only associated with them four days after its release.

Minaj has broken the Vevo Record more than any other artist with three separate videos: "Stupid Hoe", "Beauty and a Beat" and "Anaconda". Justin Bieber, One Direction and Miley Cyrus have all broken the record twice.

Record holders
List of videos which held the record for most views in their first 24 hours online

List of artists who held the record for most views in a 24-hour period

Vevo Certified Award
Vevo Certified Award honors artists with over 100 million views on Vevo and its partners (including YouTube) through special features on the Vevo website. It was launched in June 2012. The first ever artist to reach 100,000,000 views was Avril Lavigne through her "Girlfriend" music video, though the video was not on Vevo at the time.

Artists with the most Vevo Certified videos
List of artists who have at least 10 Vevo Certified music videos