VEVO Is Releasing An SDK To Offer Videos To Third-Party Developers — And Monetize Them

Music video streaming startup VEVO is building an updated version of its mobile apps, which are coming soon. It also took the step to making its videos available on partner applications with plans to release software development kit for third-party developers.

Today at a private event for press and partners, execs from the music video streaming startup showed off the new iOS version of its app, which has been updated with features that were made available thanks to a big fat API update that it introduced last year. The first version of the app to be released will be for iOS, and will be universally available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

The update makes its VEVO Now feature front and center, bringing regularly updated content into its mobile app. VEVO Now was launched in the fall, but to date has been limited to the company’s website. The mobile app will now showcase new releases and featured videos on the front page.

The app has also been built to simplify navigation. The team has added a “hamburger” icon that appears when users scroll up or down through the app, and allows them to bring up a nav screen. That screen offers the ability to check out its three live VEVO TV channels and search videos.

That navigation can happen all while a minimized video plays on the screen, allowing users to still listen in and watch the videos that they had previously chosen to watch.

But the big news is the SDK, which VEVO will begin making available to partners who want to add its videos into their apps. The VEVO app was built off the API that the company built from the ground up and began using last year, and now it wants third-party developers to have the same power.

VEVO SVP of product and technology Michael Cerda said he hopes that eventually the SDK could be open and available to all developers at some point. In the early days of its release, however, the company will be gradually working with partners on their implementations.

To showcase what developers can do with the SDK, VEVO has built an internal “Top 40″ app, which it might make available on App Stores later. It will be making the source code of that app available to developers, in addition to the different libraries of content for those it partners with.