Results

A new website aims to compete with YouTube by offering premium quality music videos. The Santa Monica, CA based start-up is PluggedIn Media, and their strategy is decidedly different from Google’s “homemade” video site. PluggedIn is firmly within the parameters of Web 2.0, using personalized profiles, blogs, WIKIs, and sharing features to lure young internet users. The site differs from its trendy peers by rejecting user-generated content. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Are laughing babies and disturbing rants really what keeps YouTube raking in the revenue, or is it sponsored content and professional videos like those that PluggedIn will feature?

The site’s founders are betting that premium content will translate into advertising dollars. Investors from Overbrook Entertainment, a film/TV production company owned by Will Smith and Lassiter, are backing PluggedIn and they may expand content beyond music videos, though plans are unclear at this point. PluggedIn has also forged relationships with three of the largest music companies. Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, EMI, and Sony BMG will all provide videos of their artists in exchange for a share of advertising revenue. A fourth company, Warner Music Group, has released a few of its videos for the site’s launch and could possibly enter into a deal in the future.

PluggedIn’s user interface is easy to navigate and sleekly designed. The quality of the videos is unmatched by competitive sites, and they keep their quality when enlarged to full-screen. Flash player is required, of course, though the videos have an annoying habit of “following” you as you scroll down for additional content. Users can read reviews of songs, biographies of artists, see other fans of their favorites, and find merchandise and concert tickets. The non-video content will be pulled from artists’ web pages, Wikipedia pages, and even Amazon’s MP3 music store and iTunes, where users can buy the songs.

CEO of PluggedIN Jeffrey Somers told the Wall Street Journal that professional video, “seems to be what people engage with the most.” Indeed, some of YouTube’s most popular videos are those uploaded by recording companies. Rihanna’s video for her hit song “Umbrella” has received over 37 million views on YouTube. By contrast, PluggedIn’s identical video has been viewed just 387 times since being added in January. They have some ground to make up if they’re going to rival YouTube, but the web video market is ready for professional content.

As the success of Mog and iLike (social networking sites for music fans) have shown, there is no single site that is all things to all music fans. For example, YouTube hosts dozens of old videos of John Denver in live performances, while PluggedIn has none. The latter site, however has a detailed biography of the country singer and links to buy his classic albums.While PluggedIn may well take some viewers away from YouTube’s grainy music videos and create a new community online, the marketplace is plenty big enough for both sites.

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

By Haley January Eckels