Rumors about a new “premium” music video site from YouTube and Universal Music Group churned out non-stop early last month, but now it’s official: UMG and YouTube plan to launch Vevo later this year.

Music videos from Universal artists will be available both on Vevo.com, as well as through a new Vevo channel on YouTube. The two companies, which will share ad revenue, expect the joint venture to be the largest music-video site in the United States upon launch.

Chris Maxcy, YouTube’s director of business development, told us that this was a “completely different” deal than the recent one it inked to carry full-length clips from Disney: “It’s a fairly deep partnership where we’re providing tech, ad sales support and access to the YouTube community.”

Maxcy said the two companies had discussed the possibility of long-form content, including original series, and the ability to sell music through Vevo, though it was “a bit early” to speculate about what those efforts might look like, or when they’d roll out. As for the timeline, he would only confirm that it was a “long term deal.”

The release is embedded after the jump.

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP AND YOUTUBE TO LAUNCH REVOLUTIONARY PREMIUM MUSIC AND VIDEO SERVICE

VEVO - UMG’s Premium Music Service Powered By YouTube To Launch In Coming Months

NEW YORK, NY and SAN BRUNO, CA, April 9, 2009 - Doug Morris, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music company and Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc. (NSDQ: GOOG), today announced that UMG and YouTube, a Google subsidiary, are working together to launch VEVO, a music and video entertainment service that will feature UMG’s premium video content.

In addition to VEVO, YouTube has renewed and extended its successful partnership with UMG that allows users to continue creating and watching user-generated videos containing UMG sound recordings and Universal Music Publishing Group’s compositions on YouTube through various territories around the world. The two companies will also share advertising revenue on YouTube and VEVO.

Launching later this year, VEVO will be a premium online music video hub built for consumers, advertisers and content owners that will blend UMG’s broad catalog of top artists and content with YouTube’s leading edge video technology and user community. YouTube will provide the technology infrastructure that will power VEVO and host UMG’s extensive library of professionally-created music videos on the new site.  On YouTube, this content will be exclusively available through VEVO.com and a new VEVO channel through a special VEVO branded embedded player.

“VEVO will bring the most compelling premium music video content and services to the world’s single largest online video audience,” stated Mr. Morris. “We believe that at launch, VEVO will already have more traffic than any other music video site in the United States and in the world. And this traffic represents the most sought after demographic for advertisers, especially as advertising dollars continue their shift from old media to new. VEVO will be uniquely positioned to monetize this opportunity and a host of others as we grow it to become “the” destination for premium music video content online. For music lovers who want the best in music videos, the VEVO experience will be second to none.  At the same time, VEVO will expand the premium video marketplace, generate new revenue streams for content creators, and provide brand advertisers an unprecedented opportunity to get in front of a highly engaged audience. We couldn’t be more excited about the huge potential we see in the VEVO service.”

“Technology has allowed fans to discover music in endless ways while creating new business opportunities for artists and labels alike,” said Mr. Schmidt.  “At Google, we are committed to promoting greater innovation and choice and are thrilled to be working with UMG in what will surely be an exciting new service for consumers, advertisers, content creators and the music industry at large.”
At launch, people will be able to access UMG’s entire catalog of premium music video content, including professionally-created and full-length videos on VEVO, as well as artist-generated content and user-generated content hosted on YouTube.  VEVO will also serve as a syndication platform, expanding the reach of the VEVO brand. This innovative platform is aimed at providing consumers the very best in digital music content while further extending UMG’s lead in the direct-to-consumer market.

Presently, UMG’s YouTube video channel has more than 3.5 billion views, making the UMG channel the most watched on YouTube.

• Reports: YouTube, Universal Teaming Up On New Music-Video Site