VEVO, a new music video-on-demand service initially operating in the United States only, recorded more than 35 million unique visitors in its first month, according to online data monitor comScore.
The amazing success of the site, co-owned by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media Company and powered by YouTube, saw it shoot straight to the top of the comScore rankings in the music category.
“We are thrilled that the VEVO Network, which is still in its infancy, has debuted at the top of the comScore rankings for unique visitors across the Entertainment-Music category in the US,” said Rio Caraeff, President and CEO of VEVO.
Music videos from artists such as Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Jay Sean, Shakira, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift appear on the site. Its launch in December 2009 was marked by a live broadcast from a Manhattan, New York outdoor clothing store featuring Wyclef Jean.
“The interest and enthusiasm our users have shown has been both gratifying and inspiring,” added Caraeff.
The rest of the comScore top five in the entertainment-music category comprised MySpace Music, AOL Music, Warner Music and MTV Networks Music.
The service is not currently available in the UK, but an announcement posted on the VEVO Blog early in 2010 said: “We’ve seen a lot of comments from fans who are upset about not being able to access VEVO in their country, although some of our videos on YouTube are available around the world, depending on the rights we have for each video.
“We are striving to release VEVO in more countries, and will announce it right here the moment that we are live. The reason we can’t just release everything to the whole world right now (even though we would love to!) is that we have to make sure that we are properly licensed in each territory for the best videos that represent both global and local tastes and that we have the infrastructure in place to operate our business.
“Rest assured that VEVO will have an increasingly global presence. Our goal is to provide music videos in high quality to as many people as we can.”