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Vevo to strip content from YouTube API

Teenage kicks over at Muziic enough to make an old man blush

Music video website Vevo will soon see its content stripped from YouTube's API, in a move to block third parties using it without the firm's permission.

The decision by the Universal Music Group and Sony Group, which co-own Vevo, was made after the founder of Muziic - 16-year-old David Nelson of Bettendorf, Iowa - kicked up an almighty stink earlier this week when he began using Vevo music videos on his website.

Nelson demonstrated how users could create playlists out of Vevo vids without them being wrapped in "obtrusive" ads. And, to add insult to injury, he said that Muziic would be made available outside of North America.

Currently Vevo only serves up content to users in the US and Canada. There are plans to open the website up to other territories, although the company hasn't yet confirmed when that might happen.

Vevo hit back in an official statement to Billboard in which the firm declared that it "does not authorise, condone or otherwise endorse, in any way whatsoever, the actions of Muziic which involve our licensed music videos or registered trademarks.”

UMG inked an advertising revenue deal with Google-owned YouTube in April when Vevo was first announced by the companies.

At the time, YouTube - propped up by Google’s technology and advertising sales support - agreed to distribute UMG’s video content to other websites.

Sony joined the party in June and Vevo officially debuted earlier this month. Immediately after that the service temporarily went belly up. The company blamed overwhelming levels of traffic for the downtime.

In a move to counter third parties co-opting the firm's videos and serving them ad-free in international markets where the service isn't even live yet, Vevo will be removed from YouTube's API over the coming days, according to sources cited at NewTeeVee.

Muziic has since tweaked its service to play just music from YouTube content, minus the videos. It's also dropped a Vevo search tab from the site in readiness for the changes to the YouTube API.

“Rather than make our customers experience sporadic unavailability for Vevo content, we’ve removed the videos from the site,” wrote Nelson in an email to NewTeeVee.

Vevo hasn't issued any official comment about this story. Meanwhile, YouTube pushed out this hands-free statement:

“Content owners on YouTube can choose where they want their videos to appear, including on mobile devices, IPTVs or even on YouTube.com itself. Our goal has always been to provide content owners with the tools they need to make informed decisions about where and how their videos are viewed.”

Vevo's YouTube channel is here. ®

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