Google, Partners Launch Free, Legal China Music Download Service

On Monday, Google and the major music labels (Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal Music), as well as 14 independent labels launched a free, ad-supported music download service in China, hoping to monetize music downloads in an area of the world best known for piracy.

I know, I know, that word legal is hard to envision with the country involved.

One reason for the offering is that Google attributes the market share lead that Baidu.com has in China (2 - 1) at least partly to lacking a music download offering.

Users can find unlicensed copies of music offered for download on third-party Web sites via Baidu. Google doesn’t offer such a service.

Lee Kai-Fu, president of Google in greater China, said:

"We are offering free, high quality and legal downloads. We were missing one piece ... we didn't have music."

Google's service is to be run by Top100.cn, a 3 1/2-year-old Chinese Web site partially owned by Google. The site will sell ads on its download page and split revenues with the music labels.

Lachie Rutherford, president of Warner Music Asia and regional head of the global recording industry group, the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) said:

"This is the first really serious attempt to start monetizing online music in China."

Google will limit the service to those with China-based IP addresses. Proxy server, anyone?