This morning we learned that Facebook is redoubling its efforts to negotiate with record companies. Its intention initially is to enhance the creation of videos by users allowing them to use their songs without violating the copyright, a step in the efforts of Zuckerberg in entering to compete with YouTube.

It is not the first time a service of this caliber has to negotiate with record companies to avoid rights issues, In fact, Google itself went through the same thing a few years ago with YouTube, and negotiations led to the creation of Vevo . Will Facebook end up having to do the same?

What exactly is Vevo?

Surely when you search on YouTube videos of your favorite artists very often you find that these are uploaded to a Vevo account. Whether you’re looking for Adele or Megadeth, AdeleVEVO or MegadethVEVO will appear on YouTube as official reference profiles for these and other artists.

This is because a decade ago YouTube found itself in a position similar to the one that Facebook has today. He had to negotiate with the record companies to reach an agreement that would satisfy both parties when Google’s official videos with the music of several artists appeared on Google’s platform.

The result of these negotiations came in December 2009 with the presentation of Vevo. It is a joint venture between Universal Music, Sony Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media Group, licensed by EMI, to benefit from the star content of YouTube at that time, music videos. These videos would still be present on YouTube, but they would also have their own independent platform.

Therefore, we could say that it is a kind of spin-off YouTube, one that helps you not have problems with the copyright of videos of those labels. Vevo has more than 50,000 videos available, and shares its advertising revenue with Google.

So it was a solution that satisfied everyone. YouTube could have rights issues the content of major labels in the world in exchange for giving away some of the benefits they generated. Meanwhile, the record companies found channel through which to obtain benefits by the videos in this platform.

Parallels with the Facebook situation

Now, almost ten years later, it is Facebook that seems to be seeking to reach agreements with the industry as said internal sources. His intentions are not exactly the same, Facebook seems to be more ambitious, but although they are not many there are some parallels between both situations.

Zuckerberg’s are creating an application for televisions, and have signed an MTV directive. These two movements, along with their attempts to recover the credibility of their advertising in video format, seem to point to a single direction: that the future of Facebook goes through the videos.

And where there are videos always ends up having video clips. Therefore, if Facebook powers your videos to the point of giving them greater visibility, it is clear that there will be those who upload the video clips of their favorite artists to enjoy them on their platform. And this is where they will have a rights problem similar to those faced by YouTube in their day.

The social network, like YouTube, is one of the most important portals in cyberspace, so all the record companies will be alert with the content that is shared there in the same way they are on YouTube. And it is that in the end, it seems that everything that has to do with them is summed up in a what is there of mine.

Therefore, considering these parallels we might think that the music industry would be tempted to seek an agreement similar to that of almost a decade ago. But today’s Facebook has nothing to do with the YouTube of the time neither in its volume of users nor in its ambitions, something for which we could think of a totally different result.

But Facebook is more ambitious

Although Facebook has not publicly defined what the strategy will be, it seems that it will be much more ambitious than YouTube’s decade ago. Its ambition is not only to be the largest video portal in the world, but also to help Facebook remain the largest content portal on the planet.

Beyond those ambitions is also the concept itself of what Facebook is preparing. Several media have pointed out that Facebook will seek to create content of its own and quality, so in that aspect seems a direction closer to that of Netflix. However, their deals with the music industry seem more focused on helping other creators, something that would bring them closer to the seas in which YouTube moves.

So we could perfectly well be talking about a kind of mixture between the concepts of both platforms . A YouTube “in which users upload their own content, but also a showcase in which to find other types of videos of higher quality and proper to Facebook.In this scenario, it seems that the solution will be much more complex.

As we have seen this morning, from the music industry they expect Facebook to go after a music license for their entire website, something that the creation of their own Vevo would not end up covering . Yes, it would allow the videos of Facebook to be the video clips of the main artists of the music scene, but being able to use that music in our own videos goes much further.

The question remains open

Will Facebook end up creating its own Vevo to please the record companies? Seen the question is open. It may not be enough to create something exactly as Vevo is, but it is not unreasonable to think that the music industry seeks to have as much control as possible suggesting to create a similar product.

Here is therefore to see the stamina that Facebook has in its negotiations and the extent to which its weight worldwide is enough to appease these intentions. And is that these negotiations, possibly, are one of the key points that finish defining the way in which Facebook definitively assaults the online video sector.