If you're among the hundreds of millions who've watched music videos from acts such as Eminem or Lady Gaga on YouTube over the last year, you might have noticed a logo for Vevo in the bottom corner. That shows the video is being served by Vevo.com, the music video site backed by Universal and Sony, and supported by EMI. But those heading to Vevo.com itself were informed that the site's catalogue of more than 25,000 music videos was not currently available in the UK. That was until Tuesday, when the site finally launched here. So you can now search for official music videos by those three major labels' artists without having to plough through the fan versions that clutter up YouTube. You can also download Vevo's free iPhone/iPad/Android apps and watch 7,500 acts' videos on the move, something you're prevented from doing via YouTube. In March, more than 52 million Americans visited Vevo.com to watch videos for an average of 80 minutes each. It may well have a similar impact in the UK.
That said, most music fans will continue to watch Vevo's catalogue of premium music videos via YouTube, which is where 90% of its streams still come. In fact, many acts now have both a Vevo channel and a standard channel on YouTube.com. So, if you want to relive Beastie Boys' typically imaginative full stream of their new album from a boombox on Madison Square Garden's basketball court, or play spot-the-Hollywood A-lister in their wonderfully daft new half-hour film, Fight for Your Right Revisited, head to youtube.com/beastieboys. But, to watch the five-minute edit of that latter film, which is being used as the official music video for the bouncing single Make Some Noise, go to youtube.com/beastieboysvevo. That's because Vevo and YouTube are separate companies, competing for separate advertising (and, judging from the growing number of pre-roll adverts, they're both doing quite well). But, from a user's perspective, it would certainly be useful if YouTube and Vevo could negotiate a way for all of an act's video content to be posted to the same channel.
Away from YouTube, Pitchfork TV has long been one of the web's other top places to watch music videos, particularly regular strand Surveillance, where acts including the xx and Hot Chip have performed exclusive sessions filmed entirely by CCTV cameras. Now they've added another string to their bow, with the excellent Pitchfork 3D (3d.pitchfork.com), a sensory overload that has so far featured a terrifically dark Deerhunter video and a richly psychedelic Wavves one. Both of the specially commissioned stereoscopic 3D videos are very much worth peering through red and blue Quality Street wrappers for.
