David Eun, Google's vice president of strategic partnerships, said the higher quality professional content would appeal to advertisers.

"As we continue to work more closely with advertisers and potential sponsors we have a good sense of the type of content that they're attracted to," said Eun.

Industry watchers will likely compare Vevo with Hulu, a high quality online video service jointly owned by NBC Universal and News Corp with about a third of the number of users of YouTube.

Hulu which features popular TV shows and some movies, has been more successful at selling advertising inventory to big brand owners than YouTube.

Vevo will also serve as a syndication platform called the Vevo Music Network which will power music videos on partner sites.

Universal Chief Executive Doug Morris is said to be in talks on bringing other music companies on board to give fans a comprehensive music site. Talks with EMI Group and Sony Music, which renewed its YouTube deal in February, will likely be more straightforward than talks with Warner Music. But Universal is hoping to have all four majors and others on board before launch.

"The feedback from the fan and advertiser is that ultimately they want all of the premium music content and not just Universal Music Group," said Caraeff.

Caraeff declined to comment on whether the other music companies could negotiate for a stake in Vevo. The music companies jointly own stakes in other ventures including MySpace Music.

Plans for Vevo come in addition to the renewal and extension of YouTube's existing recordings and publishing rights deal to feature video content from Universal artists such as U2, 50 Cent and Kanye West.

(Reuters, April 10, 2009)