Some speculation from Liz Gannes of the GigaOM network:
YouTube and Universal Music Group are in talks to create a music video site called “Vevo,” according to reports by CNET and the Wall Street Journal […] Creating a labels-only music video site would shatter YouTube’s would-be role as a single searchable hub for all the world’s video. However, YouTube is under pressure to make money, and it doesn’t want to lose what little premium content it has — Warner Music Group content vanished from the site after a licensing spat in December, and NBC still hasn’t come back after yanking its YouTube channel in 2007 in preparation for Hulu’s launch.
One of Google’s longest-running, deepest-held principles is that they will only show advertising if it is relevant. Google also has repeatedly said that it is not a media company. If it now begins to sell display advertising next to the music videos that it hosts, much of what fundamentally made Google Google will be gone. The very fact that it is in talks to do all this already demonstrates significant departure from the principles that made Google great.