Hulu Steps Into Music With EMI and Norah Jones

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Norah Jones performs in San Francisco, Calif.

Hulu, the joint online venture between NBC, Fox and ABC that mostly offers free TV shows and movies, is about to start singing a different tune: music videos.

On Wednesday the company plans to announce a somewhat limited deal with EMI, the smallest of the four major music labels, to give a “channel” on Hulu to the crooner Norah Jones. All of Ms. Jones’s videos will be posted to the site, as well as footage of four concerts and several interviews. Ms. Jones has a new album, “The Fall,” coming out this week. The plan is to add other EMI artists over time, as well as new Norah Jones material.

People have been wondering all year when Hulu would begin adding music videos. Its much bigger rival, YouTube, has a vast archive of music videos from all of the major labels, and is working on a music video hub, called Vevo, with Universal Music and Sony Music Entertainment. MySpace also has a large collection of videos. Hulu’s deal with EMI is more limited, which is probably a sign that Hulu is declining to give the financial terms the labels are looking for.

Andy Forssell, Hulu’s senior vice president for content and distribution, said that Hulu toyed with the idea of putting tens of thousands of music videos on the site. “In the end, we thought the best starting point that fit with our mission, and with what our users expect, is a good mix of content, some music videos, long-form content and interviews, everything we can get for an immersive experience around certain artists,” he said.

Mr. Forssell said talks were continuing with the other labels and that “my sense is that we’ll be in relationships with all of them at some point.”