Vevo turns up the volume on pre-launch preparations

CEO Rio Caraeff says that 35 jobs are currently open at Vevo, a music video service started by Universal.

It's the hottest commodity on the Web, and Vevo doesn't even have an official release date yet.

Searches for Vevo soared on Monday, as bloggers and tech fiends tripped over one another to find news of the music video service, which is expected to be unveiled by the end of the year. So what do we know thus far about Vevo? Well, we know that Vevo was founded by Universal Music Group, and that it will run on technology provided by YouTube.

We know that Google owns YouTube, and that Vevo – by extension – has some Google ballast behind it. And we know that Vevo has had no trouble attracting interest from other major labels. In June, Sony Music Entertainment joined the project, bolstering the amount of music video content that Vevo will make available; Warner and EMI are said to be interested.

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Media Company has reportedly purchased stakes in the start-up from Sony and Universal. The exact value of the transaction is unknown, although Peter Kafka at Media Memo says the figure hovers near $300 million. Content, cash, battle-tested video technology, a record industry plagued by slumping sales – you can see the appeal of the Vevo project.

As Greg Sandoval at CNET notes, the Vevo play is an especially canny one. Music videos are by far the most watched genre on YouTube, and the Universal YouTube channel is the most frequently-clicked on all the site. Presumably, Vevo will seek to capitalize on that traffic, and build a platform for a small army of mainstream recording artists.

For the time being, of course, Vevo isn't dishing out any details. The service has its own Twitter feed, but news on the launch is hard to come by. Still, that doesn't mean the music video service isn't rolling into gear. In a recent interview with Yahoo, Vevo President Rio Caraeff said that there were plenty of Vevo jobs available:

We're looking to hire roughly 35 at the moment, with more jobs added once the launch happens. We're looking for people across just about every level and discipline. From ad sales, engineering and accounting to music programming, there are a number of positions that we're looking to fill in next six months or so.

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