By adaptive - June 3rd, 2015
Don’t call it a comeback, music videos have been here for years. But the format has certainly seen a revival in the online world some 20 years after MTV (which stands for Music Television for those who’ve forgotten) phased out the videos that launched the upstart cable network for reality TV.
Young people, and teens in particular, are still discovering and enjoying music through videos, many of them posted to YouTube. And the company behind the scenes of the official music videos and other content built around the industry is called Vevo.
The five-year-old company’s site attracts millions of followers and viewers, but it may not be a household name for many heads of households.
Jon Li, senior director of product for Vevo, exclusively talked with OMM’s Robert Gray, discussing disruption in the music world and how the mobile small screen has usurped the TV for digital natives.
OMM: How do you describe Vevo and what do you do for the company?
Li: It’s the premiere destination to watch music videos. One of my main responsibilities is to understand and fix the problem of people not knowing Vevo’s products. They know about the official videos on YouTube but don’t know about our shows and content we do around artists. It’s hard to do when you have 10 billion views a month, but they’re mostly on YouTube.
OMM: Who’s watching the videos?
Li: They’re music fans, music enthusiasts, we have many millions watching the content.
18-24 is our core demo, a little more female (than male).
Fans also subscribe to artists on YouTube and our channels on YouTube. We help fans access content wherever they are.
On YouTube, one of channels--Lady Gaga--has 10 to 20 million subscribers on channels.
OMM: Where do the videos come from?
Li: All the videos are coming from the labels or from people who create high-quality content. They can be live performances or interviews with artists.
It’s MTV for the on demand internet generation, people who want things when it’s convenient for them.
OMM: What’s the corporate structure?
Li: Music labels realized their content was being uploaded to YouTube or pirated so they banded together and created a joint venture with Sony and Universal Music (along with new investor YouTube, which invested in the company two years ago) and created Vevo. Anyone who wanted the streaming rights could acquire the rights and we could monetize them.
OMM: Digital disruption has been going on for more than 15 years. What’s new and different in the space?
Li: Visual disruption. Right now everything’s about streaming. Vevo has both visual simulation and also audio. Mostly people have talked about audio, but where we do a great job is in the living room and on mobile phone. People want to see the latest Kanye West video, so everyone picks up their phones to watch the content. But they also watch it on Xbox, PlayStation, and smart TVs-- people are watching videos in the living room.
People used to think phones were a secondary screen to larger TVs. Two years ago people were talking about second screen experiences on phones, but now the TV is your secondary screen, social screen, the phone is really your primary screen. The TV is what you turn on at a party to have great visuals, or to do your homework.
OMM: How are artists using video to market their new songs and content?
Li: Shorter, bite-sized clips are getting more popular; to have artists own the content and window it so others can’t see it. I think the way to hype new singles and albums is in shorter form video, Snapchat, and mini-clips to hype up the real thing and drive album sales.
OMM:Where do you see the music video industry going? What’s next?
Li: I helped build the Oculus Rift app, 360-degree app for Vevo. We didn’t ship it because the experience wasn’t what we wanted. I know other video producers want to do more in a 360-degree, immersive world.
A music video shot in 3D, those are things people want.
Taylor Swift launched “Blank Space” with American Express, created an iPad app with behind the scenes views, using 360-degree footage in 3D. The people who can afford it are experimenting with it.
Ad placements can generate a lot of money, but they are fixed. If I show an artist drinking coke, I can’t sell it to Pepsi.
Mirriad, a partner of ours, they can dynamically insert ad placements inside a music video. It’s really cool. Oculus is fun to experiment with, but it’s not ready for prime time. That’s not to say it won’t be right in two or three years.
OMM: Who are some of your digital platform partners?
Li: We have a lot of digital partners: Yahoo, AOL, MTV, anywhere you see a Vevo video, they’re a part of us.
OMM: Where is Vevo heading?
Li:How do we optimize the mobile screen for convenience? Imagine you get an alert on premieres from a favorite artist. I think that’s more conducive to mobile. We’re focused on mobile but also desktop. We’re at the beginning of understanding how they work together and can play off of one another. Imagine queuing up on your phone all the videos, and then they are waiting for you to play on your TV.
For all the latest mobile trends, check out The Open Mobile Summit 2015 on June 29-30 in London.