Vevo to launch in France, Spain and Italy
September 6, 2011
Quote:
Music video site Vevo, owned by Universal, Sony Music and Abu Dhabi Media, is launching in France, Spain and Italy via a partnership with Yahoo!.
Vevo will make about 45,000 music videos available on the portal. In the US, Vevo, which launched in 2009, attracts about 60 million visitors per month. The service is also currently available in Canada and the UK. Yahoo!’s agreement allows it to commercialise Vevo’s advertising sales in the three new countries.
USA/Canada: December 2009
UK: April 2011
France/Spain/Italy: soon
VEVO did said that it will expand to Europe in the later part of 2011 and then to Australia, Brazil and part of Asia.
Same reason as why no Youtube Music Videos in Germany.
GEMA wants more money for music video.
GEMA collect royalties for songwriters in Germany. Without their approval, Youtube will not play any music videos in Germany. Likewise, VEVO will have a hard time too.
BERLIN - GEMA, the German collection society, has come under fire in recent days from the music industry as it attempts to settle a two-year long dispute over royalties with Google by preventing access to music videos on YouTube. The issue is set to be taken up by a California court.
Many music industry sources are taking a stand against GEMA as it is trying to impose what is seen as unreasonably high royalties on new technologies preventing new sources of revenues.
"I suspect that some members of GEMA's supervisory board have not yet arrived in the digital era," said Edgar Berger, CEO of Sony Music Entertainment GSA in Munich, to Billboard.biz. "We want to see streaming services like Vevo and Spotify in the German market. [These platforms] must not be blocked by GEMA any longer. Artists and music companies are losing sales in the millions."
Frank Briegmann, President of Universal Music Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Deutsche Grammophon label in Berlin, is also frustrated that agreements are being reached between collection societies and YouTube everywhere else in the world except Germany, the world's third largest music market. "Germany is a developing country in the digital music market," Briegman said. "GEMA apparently has not yet understood the new developments in the international music market."
GEMA has also had to contend with other concerns since Friday (June 17) when a hacker named "Anonymus" allegedly hacked GEMA's website. In a statement, GEMA spokeswoman Bettina Mueller said: "The reasons for this attack are being investigated. GEMA systems are not affected and are not at any risk."
In an online statement, the anonymous hackers warned GEMA, stating: "We are observing with concern your excessive demands with regard to copyright-protected material on YouTube and other platforms. If there is no change in this attitude, we will be forced to take further measures."
A Google spokesman Kay Oberbeck told Billboard in Hamburg that YouTube had entered into 20 agreements with collection societies from 33 countries. "We therefore regret all the more that GEMA has decided to commence legal proceedings against us despite the promising talks which we have held, thus removing the basis for conducting any further negotiations in a spirit of mutual trust. A solution can only be found at the negotiating table without any legal proceedings. We are prepared to resume negotiations at any time."
In a statement, Alexander Wolf, GEMA's counsel for international legal matters, rejected the criticisms: "There is no sudden escalation between YouTube and GEMA. There has been no change in the situation for months. The suit was filed in late 2010. Only the statement of claim was served on YouTube United States at a later date in April 2011. The 12 works of music which we have submitted in the proceedings against YouTube will not restrict the YouTube users given the existence of millions of music videos."
It is frequently claimed that GEMA is seeking royalties of 12 cents per video stream, Wolf added. In actual fact, however, GEMA entered the negotiations offering the standard single-digit cent rate per video stream. "As we are bound by the terms of a confidentiality agreement, we are not able to disclose any further information or details on the contract to the public," said Wolf.
According to off-the-record sources, YouTube is interested in paying solely a flat-rate fee. GEMA is requesting more precise information on the titles accessed and the number of files streamed so as to assess the reasonable fees. The demands made by GEMA, that the new fee arrangements with YouTube should not only include advertising revenue but also take account of YouTube's business performance, have so far been ignored.
There is no further comment from either party
In Germany, GEMA represents the copyrights of more than 64,000 members (composers, lyricists, and music publishers) and over 2 million copyright owners worldwide. It is also is one of the world's largest societies for authors of music works. In 2010 GEMA had revenues of 863 million Euro, an increase of 2.6 per cent to 2009.
isn't it already worldwide through syndication with Youtube?
Quote:
VEVO powers music videos on artist pages across Facebook, as well as syndicates to dozens of online sites, including AOL, BET, CBS Interactive Music Group (including Last.fm and MP3.com), Fuse.tv and Univision. Additionally, through a special partnership with YouTube, VEVO is accessible in over 200 countries, expanding the platform’s reach around the globe.
The reason why VEVO.com can't be worldwide is because of ADVERTISEMENT.
Youtube, through Google, have a worldwide ad network.
VEVO does not. If VEVO launches worldwide, it needs to set up offices in most major countries. Which would cost A LOT OF MONEY. Imagine setting up offices in China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, India, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, Spain etc...
In order to launch in UK, it has to hire a bunch of ad sales personnel. Their job is to get advertisers.
Is there a country in the world that can't watch "many" VEVO videos through youtube? Sure, there are bound to be a few VEVO videos that are blocked but most should work.
Even in the USA, there are some VEVO videos that are blocked.
From time to time, I get this message.
Quote:
The uploader has not made this video available in your country.
Hmm ok.
Why then are there so many YouTube videos blocked because of Vevo for my country?
Lol, I really don't get this.
what country are you from? I know that in Germany, something like 95% of VEVO videos are blocked due to GEMA not signing the agreement. Maybe your country royalties collection agency did not sign the agreement with Youtube.
And what are some popular Music Videos that are blocked for you?
