Explained: What is VEVO - and how does it relate to YouTube?

For a long time, official music videos on YouTube were a legally difficult topic. That's due in no small part to VEVO. If you've already seen the name on the platform, we'll explain what it actually stands for.

Online music giant: The name VEVO is familiar to millions of YouTube users.

VEVO was founded back in 2009, but has gained a lot of notoriety in recent years.

This is VEVO

VEVO is an online entertainment service jointly operated by several media giants, including Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group.

• As a result, VEVO owns the rights to quite a few artists.
• In 2013, an agreement was reached with GEMA in Germany. Since then, most official music videos may be viewed freely on the Internet.
• In addition, VEVO made a deal with YouTube. Consequently, VEVO receives the most viewers (by far) on YouTube, as Google's video platform continues to lead the world.
• The awareness of VEVO has increased enormously thanks to YouTube: At the beginning of 2020, the VEVO channel had over 19 million subscribers, and some of the most popular videos record over 70 million views.

This explains why, when searching for music videos, you usually find the VEVO channel's entry first. Since the videos have been officially uploaded there, they are legally sound and of the highest quality. Thus, for both VEVO and YouTube and the users, the current situation is a good thing, as it makes well-known music freely available, and without any legal gray area at all.