When the music video website VEVO launched this past December, it seemed all set to be the kissing cousin of YouTube that would make the majors happy.

Backed by Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Abu Dhabi Media Company and integrated with Google and YouTube, VEVO provides revenue to the majors and their artists through preroll ads. The only key player missing was Warner Music Group, which licensed its videos to Hulu.

Still, Bono called VEVO a “new model” for the music industry. And many other artists got behind it.

But soon after VEVO hit the web — following a lot of hype and a celebrity-endowed launch party (see the video above) — the site began getting mixed reviews. While some praised VEVO’s social-sharing savvy and playlist features, others (rightly) jumped on the fact that the site was unprepared for high-volume traffic and didn’t work properly at first.

Then there was the issue of Vevo offering only a portion of the major-label catalog. As one blogger put it: “If you want to watch some Adam Lambert, you’re golden. If you want to watch some Wilco, you’re screwed.”

Soon, VEVO CEO Rio Caraeff was jumping into the fray to defend his young company.

Given the factors at play, not least of which being the long-broken relationship between the majors and post-Napster music consumers, VEVO had it’s work cut out.

Within the past week, a new chapter has opened in the saga. It involves a teenage entrepreneur. And from a PR perspective, it hasn’t been good for VEVO’s cause.

Launched first as a software program in February 2009 by 16-year-old David Nelson, with help from his dad, Muziic showed up in December as an on-demand listening site whose catalog is built on YouTube. Using YouTube’s API, Muziic essentially pulls songs off of YouTube (minus the ads) and allows users to deal just with the music, making playlists, searching and sharing. And because it uses the API that YouTube itself built, it was virtually unassailable.

And then VEVO came into the picture.

The big V. was none too happy about the fact that its preroll ads weren’t showing up in Muziic. But there wasn’t much that Muziic could do because the YouTube API it was built on didn’t contain ads. A cease-and-desist order was issued from VEVO to Muziic.

Nelson said he tried to work with the big guys.

Soon, VEVO had pulled its videos from the YouTube API, and Muziic was back to streaming only YouTube’s content. Mind you, this is all happening nearly five years after YouTube itself launched and began streaming videos.

Yes, it took five years for the majors to catch up with on-demand video streaming (if VEVO can even be said to represent a “catching up”).

VEVO bills itself as a “Music Evolution Revolution.” But there’ll be no evolution until the major labels quit casting themselves as victims.