PluggedIn Fails Where “Vevo” Wants to Go

Hours after news of Universal Music Group and YouTube’s closed-door efforts to create a music video portal comes word about a startup shutting down that did exactly the same thing.

PluggedIn, which launched only in April ‘08, had 10,000 music videos from Universal, Sony BMG and EMI (not Warner) at launch. Its pitch was high-quality streams combined with informational and social features. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup had funding from actor and rapper Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. TechCrunch reports it would like to sell its technology and team for $3 million, the amount of investment to date. Apparently the company ran out of money after a Series B round fell through.

PluggedIn used the Move Networks plug-in to deliver streams, something that’s worked for known brands like ABC, but may have been harder for a new site to get users to install.