WILL THIS VESSEL FLOAT?

Top execs at UMG and Warner Music will be watching Vessel’s progress very closely this week, after they pledged to give the subscription service—which launched yesterday—exclusive windowed content before they release it onto Google’s video platform, Tim Ingham reports in Music Business Worldwide.

A free sign-up will get users access to non-exclusive content, including a host of Vevo videos from major artists. But Vessel’s key point of difference—and the reason Warner and Universal have ultimately licensed the service—is its subscription tier.

For $2.99 a month users can get access to new videos that are otherwise unavailable for 72 hours elsewhere. (At least, that’s the idea; exactly how “exclusive” these videos remain when YouTube users are very happy to continually rip and post copyrighted material remains to be seen.)

Funnily enough, Vessel’s first trick to increase its subscriber numbers takes a leaf out of Spotify’s freemium book. Not only can any user enjoy free access to Vevo videos for now, but premium subscribers who sign up in the first 72 hours of Vessel’s launch (ending tomorrow) will get a year’s subscription gratis.

Vessel, which was built by former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, has launched with 170 launch partners, including BuzzFeed, Machinima, Time, The New York Times, Funny or Die and TED.

At launch yesterday, Kilar and his Vessel co-founder Richard Tom said: “When we started Vessel, we believed this was a unique moment in online video. Technology has opened a world of possibilities for video delivered over the web. We started this journey because we saw those possibilities and had a vision for what online video could be.”

Read more at Music Business Worldwide.