According to a Financial Times report (paywall) Vevo, the web-equivalent of vintage MTV, upped revenues by 30% in 2017, as the ebbs of big-budget music videos have finally start flowin’ again.

“The Veve” reportedly broke even in 2017 making close to $650m — a $250m spike from 2016, with their videos topping 25B monthly views.

And, in 2018, they may actually become profitable

A “maybe” that’s highly noteworthy considering profitability isn’t a plane even Spotify can seem to land — startin’ off 2018 right.

Vevo was founded in 2009 as a joint venture between the “big 3” record labels (Universal, Sony, and Warner), who were miffed at the billions of dollars in ad revenue they weren’t making on the visual medium of music.

So, when YouTube cemented themselves as the quintessential online streaming platform, they saw dollar signs.

Cut to the start of 2018, and big stuff is happening in the world of Vevo video…

Ironically, thanks in part to some of YouTube’s content issues 

According to Vevo, they said advertisers came running after pulling millions of dollars from YouTube when they caught their campaigns paired with some highly offensive content throughout last year.

So, while Vevo has struggled to monetize their content in the past, it seems their rival’s bumbles, along with a surge in music video streaming (the J-Biebs-featured hit “Despacito” raking in 4.5B views this year alone), are finally pushing them in the right direction.

Originally posted on THE HUSTLE.COM