Saturday, September 5, 2009

Vevo's $300M valuation

Vevo, the  recent joint venture between Universal and Sony music with YouTube providing backend tech support is currently shopping for money at a $300M valuation.  No doubt online entities such as Hulu, which raised $100M based on a $1B valuation proved there was a market for television content owners when built with an end user ease of use and content to satisfy demand.  But is music in a similar position as television currently?  I have my doubts.  The biggest question is rights; what do the labels have rights to that hasn't currently been exploited on the web already?  With their dwindling front line releases they will have to set their value based on catalog, which is extensive, but seems to be accessible already.  Also, if they continue to diminish their new artists releases they will be dependent on striking deals with new talent, outside of the deals they have with the labels, based on the Vevo experience for which the jury is still out?

One of the reasons I moved to the live experience is that I understood this day would be coming.  One where the only place you will be able to successfully replenish new content to keep fans engaged online enough would be artists offerings of their live media, for which every night there is a performance in which new content can be created.  The argument is who gets the rights to the "live" performances which are being spelled out more and more in contract negotiations and what are you doing with those performances (broadcast, transactional, etc.)

I'm sure Vevo will be successful in a raise despite what the price for the money is.   They certainly have a catalog and a smart team for which to build the business initially.  The big question I'm sure by some of the investors is how do they plan on keeping a sustainable business?


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