Vevo Close to Striking Deal with Warner Music (Report)

Vevo is close to striking a deal with Warner Music, according to a New York Post report. The deal would allow Vevo to carry music from all three major labels, and could be an important step towards a paid subscription service.

Vevo has been distributing music from Sony and Universal, which both hold a significant stake in the company, since its launch in 2009. Warner was the odd one out, and instead struck its own deals to distribute its music on YouTube as well as through MTV.

Now, the two companies are talking to finally come together, and a deal is apparently imminent. Some of the artists that would find their way onto Vevo with the deal would include Bruno Mars, Wiz Khalifa and Coldplay.

Vevo is best known for distributing music on YouTube, but the company has worked to build out its own website and apps in recent months to gain some independence from the Google-owned video service.

The next step on this journey will be an ad-free subscription service, which is supposed to launch some time later this year. However, in order to sell music subscriptions, Vevo needs to have a catalog that’s comparable to that of other paid services like Spotify and Apple Music, at least in breath if not in the number of tracks — something that’s only possible with a deal with Warner.

Related stories

How Vevo Wants to Leapfrog YouTube By Taking Cues from Snapchat and Tinder

Vevo and MUBI Launch Video Apps on Sony's PlayStation 4

Ariana Grande Previews New 'Dangerous Woman' Album for Vevo Concert

Get more from Variety and Variety411: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter