Former Sony, Vevo executives join video start-up Vadio

A former vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and the former chief executive of music video distributor Vevo have taken key roles at a start-up that aims to introduce videos to music streaming services such as Pandora.

Yair Landau, who spent 17 years at Sony, was named chairman and chief operating officer at Vadio Inc., a Portland-based company that opened an office in Santa Monica last month. where Landau will be based.

Rio Caraeff, who left Vevo in December, signed on as an advisor. Vadio announced the additions Tuesday after closing a $7.5-million round of funding.

Music streaming services are struggling to make money. By handling music video rights and embedding videos and video ads into apps, Vadio could create a new revenue stream for the streaming services. Vadio, of course, would take part of the cut.

It’s possible the streaming services will go it alone. Spotify has been in talks with online video makers, according to people familiar with the matter, and could introduce video-related features at an event next week. Pandora, SoundCloud, Deezer and other audio platforms are considering new-revenue options, and Vadio Chief Executive Bryce Clemmer said he only needs to sign a couple of platforms to create a big business.

Leading Vadio’s latest funding round is Marker LLC, a venture capital-firm that’s also invested in Interlude, whose engineers are developing technology for interactive music videos.

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