Take That, Baidu: Google Kicks Off Free Music Downloads In China
The updated Google music service, which debuted Monday, will see the search giant earning advertising revenue on pages that enable the downloading or streaming of licensed music from the likes of Warner Music Group, Universal, EMI and Sony.
Overall, more than 140 labels are involved in the venture and more than 350,000 songs will be initially available, according to the Wall Street Journal and other reports. The service is free to users in China but unavailable in the rest of the world.
Google is partnering with a Chinese Web site in which it owns shares, Top 100.cn. The record companies and Top100.cn each get about half of any revenue from banner ads that appear on pages while users are downloading music. Google itself will get its traditional search ad return from the main music search page.
The music service seems to be a tactical move on the part of both Google and the record labels. While Google dominates the search market in the U.S., Europe and much of the world, its exposure in China is dwarfed by Baidu, a Beijing-based search engine that includes search functions, discussion groups and Baidu Baike, an online encyclopedia.
The Beijing research firm Analysys International, quoted in a number of news reports on Monday, puts Google's share of search in China at 28 percent, and Baidu's at 62 percent. Baidu is a bete noir among recording industry executives who say that because of how readily Baidu users can link to and download unlicensed music, Baidu is one of the principal enablers of music piracy in China.
"Until now, the online market in China has been completely un-monetized by the music business," said Lachie Rutherford, president of Warner Music Asia Pacific, to the Journal. Rutherford added during a Bejing news conference that he "can't overstate how important" the Google service is.