Vevo added a tool to its site Monday that lets users make shareable animated GIFs out of five seconds of many of its music videos.
It's Vevo's latest lure to hook music video lovers, hoping it can entice them to watch more of its videos on its own site rather than YouTube. Vevo is a bedrock for music videos on the internet, holding a greater streaming catalog of official videos than any other outfit. But a large chunk of its viewing occurs on its popular YouTube channel. That means sharing the revenue with YouTube's parent, Google, and losing total ownership of the data about that viewing.
The GIF tool is available on Vevo's website only for now, but the company said it plans to make GIF creation available on its mobile app next month.
Once you pick the five-second-or-less selection for your favorite video, you can choose to share it on Twitter or Facebook. Vevo said it's looking at the possibility of allowing you to directly download the GIF at a later date. The tool doesn't work on every music video in Vevo's catalog, but the company said it is working to get the rights to the most it can.
Vevo's relationship with Google is complicated. The search giant holds a non-controlling stake in Vevo, which is a joint venture of two of the three major music labels, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment.