Vevo adds curated playlists, improved personalization, more in tvOS app update

By Mikey Campbell

Taking a page out of Apple Music's playbook, popular video music service Vevo will this week introduce a revamped tvOS app with curated and customizable playlists, new browsing features, a "peek-inside-playlist" user interface and more.

Announced through the company's website on Thursday, Vevo's upcoming revamp attempts to do for music videos what Apple Music and Spotify have done for streaming music.

Along with a refreshed design, the Vevo Apple TV app will bring curated playlists to the big screen. Assembled by an in-house editorial team, music videos will be offered up in a similar manner to Apple Music's situational playlists. For example, users will be able to view content arranged for certain times of day, special events and holidays.

The Vevo app learns user tastes over time to offer a more personalized experience, similar to recommendation systems implemented in major streaming services. Users can also save videos to a dedicated favorites section for later perusal.

"Music videos became a cultural phenomenon through the power and reach of television over the last thirty years," said Vevo CEO Erik Huggers. "In recent years, this platform has lacked the rich and immersive experience that a new generation of viewers demand from their connected devices. With Vevo for tvOS, we've created an environment that allows the music video to shine once again on the big screen, with an intuitive user interface and new levels of personalization and control."

Vevo's new design includes genre categories for surfacing new artists and tracks to fit user tastes and moods. Mixed in with localized content is original programming like Vevo Originals, Vevo Meets and Vevo Presents.

As part of the design revamp, Vevo is introducing a "peak-inside-playlist" function that allows users to browse for other videos while listening to a playlist or artist station.

Vevo expects the update to go live on Friday as a free download on the tvOS App Store.