Business

World's Biggest Record Label Pulls Videos from MTV.com

Negotiations between Vevo and MTV, the two heavyweights of the music video, have broken down with dire results for visitors to MTV’s websites where music videos from Universal Music Group, the largest record label in the world will no longer appear.

The websites affected include MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com.

MTV spokesman Kurt Patat would not reveal the reason for the dispute, only that Vevo — a joint venture between record labels Universal Music Group, Sony, EMI and investor Abu Dhabi with a back-end built by YouTube — was demanding something “outside industry standards.” Our educated guess: Vevo wanted control not only of the overlay ads that appear in video windows when MTV’s websites embed Vevo videos, but also over banner ads and other types of advertising on the page.

Vevo, now the number three most popular video site on the internet behind YouTube and Yahoo, is a Universal- and Sony-led initiative to concentrate all major label music videos under one roof, so that websites including YouTube must embed those videos from Vevo if they want to display them, rather than forging deals directly with the labels themselves.

After the site launched, MTV president Van Toffler told Wired.com he wasn’t too worried about the major label-backed venture.

“I have no fear we’ll get videos from artists, labels, Vevo — artists want their videos out there. They call us hourly to get their videos on MTV and MTV.com, and think it’s really potent to marry the screens of digital and TV,” said Toffler. “I understand the business proposition behind Vevo and preserving revenue for the record labels. Having said that, we think it’s a compelling proposition to create narrative, create stories around the music, the videos, and nurture artists and help build careers.”

After negotiations broke down between MTV and Vevo, MTV issued the following statement about Universal’s decision not to renew its contract with MTV’s websites:

For almost 30 years, we have enjoyed long and colorful partnerships with all the music labels, including UMG and their talented roster of artists on MTV, VH1 and CMT. As the industry evolves, we continue to seek out new and innovative ways to connect artists with their fans that are mutually beneficial to everyone. However, during our recent discussions with VEVO, we were unable to reach a fair and equitable agreement for rights to stream UMG artists’ music video content. As a result, UMG has elected to pull their music videos from our web sites. We are disappointed by this move and sincerely hope that UMG will work with us toward a fair resolution and allow their artists to once again connect with the millions of music fans who visit MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com every month.

Meanwhile, UMG claims MTV refused to strike a “fair” deal:

MTVN has been unwilling to negotiate a fair syndication deal with Vevo to carry our artists’ videos and consequently our videos will not be shown on their online properties. We believe that using Vevo as our online music video syndication platform is the best way to maximize revenue for our artists, our songwriters and ourselves, while bringing our videos to the widest possible audience. In less than 8 months since its launch, Vevo has already become the web’s #1 rated video network with over 49 million unique visitors monthly, dramatically eclipsing those on MTV’s online properties, while attracting scores of major advertisers and tens of millions in advertising dollars. As a result, our artists are enjoying tremendous exposure on Vevo on YouTube and Vevo.com, and will enjoy even more as Vevo continues to complete syndication deals supplementing the existing arrangements with leading destinations as AOL and CBS Interactive.

We’ve seen disputes like this before — like when Warner pulled all of its videos from YouTube — and they tend to blow over with the passage of time. But for now, seekers of Lady Gaga and other popular videos will not find them on MTV.com. However, Universal’s videos will still appear on MTV’s television stations.

Follow us for disruptive tech news: Eliot Van Buskirk and Epicenter on Twitter.

See Also: