Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 16, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Start-up company PluggedIn Media wants to compete with YouTube through professional music videos. As the platform’s operators have announced, users can now access numerous videos in near-DVD quality from the catalogues of three of the four major labels free of charge. With the exception of Warner Music, PluggedIn has already agreed licensing deals with all the majors at launch and offers a selection of around 10,000 different clips. There is also information about individual artists and links to merchandise and concert-ticket sites.
By its own account, PluggedIn is pursuing a counterstrategy to video portals such as YouTube or MySpace, which are dominated by user-generated content. German video platform MyVideo also consists predominantly of user-generated content. “There are currently over 2.4 million videos on MyVideo.de, a large proportion of which come from the users themselves. But we also placed a strong focus on premium-content partnerships from the outset,” a MyVideo spokeswoman told pressetext.de. The platform’s premium-content area also includes professional music videos. “The music section currently includes content from labels such as SonyBMG, Peppermint Jam, Optik Records, Great Stuff and Starwatch,” the spokeswoman continued.
Although amateur videos are currently experiencing a genuine boom, PluggedIn’s operators are explicitly focusing on high quality and hope to win users over that way. “Professionally produced content seems to be what people engage with most strongly,” says PluggedIn chief Jeffery Somers. He can also imagine advertisers preferring to place their advertisements alongside professionally made content rather than on sites offering user-generated content. Initially, only music content will be provided. However, other forms of entertainment are also being considered for the future, says Sommers. This would also give popular US video site Hulu.com, jointly operated by Fox and NBC Universal, a new competitor.
Behind PluggedIn is, among others, popular actor Will Smith with his film production company Overbrook Entertainment. The size of Overbrook’s investment was not made public, however. The labels supplying PluggedIn’s content receive a share of the website’s advertising revenue. The amount was likewise kept confidential. And although Warner Music has not signed licensing agreements with the start-up, PluggedIn says there will also be some Warner videos on the site at launch.
Further Links:
- PluggedIn Media
