14 DAY TRIAL // With just a few days until launch, Vevo has announced a new partnership with CBS which will bring some sort of Last.fm integration, as well as content from 90 CBS music radio stations. There aren't too many details at the moment, but the deal should round out the content coming from the site's parents Universal Music Group and Sony Music.
CBS Interactive Music Group will provide live concerts, as well as in-studio performances, from the radio stations it controls. There will also be additional material like interviews and 'behind the scenes' content. How exactly this fits into a video site remains to be seen.
Equally unknown is how Last.fm will be integrated, though CBS has been pushing to turn the site into a media brand rather than just a music streaming service and is set to launch Last.TV, a video component tied to the site featuring concert footage and the likes. Last.fm's recent integration with Microsoft's Xbox 360 games console proved a huge success and it's clear that CBS has big plans for the site.
Vevo, a joint venture of Universal and Sony music, is set to be launched next Tuesday. The site has been in the works for quite a while now and will be dedicated to music videos and related content. It was the brainchild of Universal Music which later convinced Sony to join as a partner, though talks with the other two major labels have been fruitless so far, despite some signs that this may change.
Google, or rather YouTube, will be providing the technical know-how, the platform and the infrastructure for the site, but it will be otherwise completely separated from YouTube. The venture got a big break recently after it managed to secure funding from Abu Dhabi Media Company, reportedly at a valuation of $300 million. This had been an issue for the site as without an outside partner it might have run into trouble with anti-trust regulators.