Major online music contender VEVO is set to launch the evening of December 8th. “The VEVO service at VEVO.com and at YouTube.com will go live in coordination with our launch event in New York on December 8th," read an email sent late Wednesday from the Universal, Google and Sony backed startup.

VEVO is being created to help the major labels better control and monetize their online video content. UMG's YouTube channel has more than 3.5 billion views, making it the most watched on the top rated video site, and VEVO will benefit from some of that traffic at launch. “We believe that at launch, VEVO will already have more traffic than any other music video site in the United States and in the world, said Universal CEO Doug Morris when announcing the formation of VEVO earlier this year. “And this traffic represents the most sought after demographic for advertisers, especially as advertising dollars continue their shift from old media to new."

But VEVO has not yet convinced all the major label groups to jump on board. Yesterday EMI announced a deal to deliver extensive content to popular online video service HULU; and WMG appears to be taking a multi-channel strategy recently renegotiating its deal with YouTube and partnering with FreeWheel for video monetization.