Vevo launched last December with a Bono-lead star-studded party, and to much criticism from a reluctant online audience. Just half a year has passed, and the video website is now churning out some impressive numbers; the most recent comScore Video Metrix (April 2010) report shows that VEVO video viewership grew 11% to a whopping 43.58M unique viewers, edging ahead of such established online giants as Hulu, Facebook and CBS.

The original concept came from Universal Music Group, was developed and hosted by YouTube, with Google and Vevo sharing the advertising revenue. Vevo now hosts official music videos from three of the four major record labels; UMG, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI. These labels have established dedicated artist channels, and systematically removed much of the ‘home recorded’, similar, or bootleg content from Youtube. Warner Music Group have pulled much of their content from Youtube as of March 2009, but are yet to get into the Vevo deal.

Traditional music video may not be the main reason for their rapid growth. Although, adding hype to these by hosting world-premiers of highly-anticipated videos from the likes of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé (‘Telephone’ has 84m views and counting), Christina Aguilera’s and Rihanna have certainly helped. Providing exclusive access to live events such as MGMT’s performance at a “Live on Letterman” concert (below) has also accelerate viewings.

Vevo has also recently secured the exclusive rights to stream live the June 10 FIFA Word Cup Kick-Off Celebration Concert- a live, high definition global webcast. Immediately following the concert, you’ll be able to watch it on-demand anytime at the website as well as more exclusive and original programming from the artists performing. Vevo videos are currently only available in the US and Canada, but they do aim to launch outside North America this year.

This kind of official event and endorsement has helped edge Vevo ahead as a ‘proper’ video source, as opposed to Youtube’s swamp of grainy home recordings with poor audio, and that also helps them pitch to high-end advertisers and who are uncertain of such user-generated content and would instead be drawn to the likes of Hulu.

So, despite many people’s wariness of the bodies behind the venture, they seem to be pulling in huge numbers. Providing fresh content with value for consumers is the key to it all, and maybe the majors are starting to understand that. They still need to reach out and build relationships with respectable independent labels, to avoid it being something of a ‘big boys club’, and to also allow access to (and promotion for) the huge underground artists and bands that are always just about to blow up. But, maybe, Vevo is blossoming into a credible place for music video online.

Lee Jarvis.

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Quentin Tarantino’s latest offering ‘Inglourious Basterds‘ has hit the screens last weekend and has already grossed in the region of $37.6m in the US. The movie is seen as a pivotal release for the recently struggling indie Weinstein Company, and will be closely followed by Halloween II, expecting to lead them into a strong fall season. It’s also good news for Universal, who split the cost of the movie and distributed it to 22 foreign territories, grossing $27.5m overseas. Those of you looking for a taster of the movie, here is the official trailer…

‘Basterds’ has made waves online, with it’s Twitter following not only growing, but Tweets from fans doing much of the word-of-mouth publicity work. Both the NY Times and LA Times declared it a roaring success, and praise has rained in for Tarantino and Weinsten.

Slightly less has been said of Brad Pitt, which is a shame as I think he really helps make the movie. I’ve always enjoyed Pitt’s characters, from ‘Fight Club’ to ‘Se7en’ to ‘Snatch’ to ’12 Monkeys’, and I think that this film will slot right into his top five roles.

MTV have uploaded a joint interview with Pitt and Tarantino, which I thought I’d share here as a bit of background.

(Part 1 script)

(Part 2 script)

Feel free to share your thoughts on Pitt, Tarantino, ‘Basterds’, Weinstein or all of the above in our comments!

Lee Jarvis.

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