Vevo.com: No indi, metal, or trance for you

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Google and gang have just released a new video website just for music videos, called Vevo.com. After having a bit of trouble getting on the site (it may have been busy, I am in Oz) it looks like we may have a new site to go to when we are chasing the new Mariah Carey clip, Pina Collabo clip, or Rihanna clip.

But funnily enough, not many of the groups/artists I like are on the site.  And the when I clicked on the new Weezer clip I got the "Sorry, this video is not available in your region." Strange, it worked fine on YouTube.com, so I'm a little unsure of Vevo.com's purpose in the interwebs.

The video clip is still an important tool for artists. I'm a big fan of video clips, as I'm a big fan of video put to music.  I love to see the interpretation of the song in the clip, and also see the video clip as an extension of the song. Some of the most powerful images of growing up were seen on late night Rage on the ABC, or Video Hits on Saturday mornings.

The upshot of this is that I have been looking for a way of easily getting my video clip fix, so when I heard about Vevo.com, my palms got sweaty.  Of course, YouTube is probably the easiest free place at the moment, but the quality is generally poor, and finding a good version, if the record company hasn't put up the clip, can be a pain.  

The other option is to buy the clips from iTunes which gives you a better quality clip, but there is money involved.  I like video clips, but even great artists occasionally make a crap clip, and really, the clip is an advertisement for the artist and the song.  So they should be freely available, especially since a good clip is a great way to introduce a new artist with the shift away from radio by its core demographic (the young people).

So from my point of view Vevo.com should be a win.  It should be a legitimate replacement for the pirate, or shady services where the record industry can get 100% of the audience and the conversation.  A way for the record industry to take back their image, and give the fan's what they want, and to be able to control it.  Of course I mean that in a love and free music kind of way.

It looks like the industry doesn't see things in a "love and free music" kind of way.  Even if you argue that the site is just launched, you would think that with the back catalogue they must have, not to mention the clips that are legitimately on YouTube, there should be more clips on the site.  There should be a wider range of artists, and they should be free for all so that the fans can honestly comment and rate.  Of course, openness may mean that the odd really bad Taylor Swift clip may rate low, and the really cool clip by that Norwegian folk band may rate well.

What we are seeing here is that the Music Industry still doesn't get the internet.  Even when they get the right idea they have to hamstring it in some way.  This could have been the first step in a fight back for the minds of the internet generation.  By making the service convenient and easy they could have started to win back the audience/eyeballs that P2P and YouTube took away.

All this being said, I do hope that the above problems are just launch issues.  Because there is a big need for a portal to high quality, well organised, and rateable music video content.  Not just for the access to the content, but as a way to find and explore new music.  As mentioned, a video clip can tell you way more about the band than catching a song on the radio, and we are in the video age....

Jason

...if it ain't Broken, forget to add content.