Google Launches Free Legal Music Search Service in China

The U.S. Internet search giant Google Inc. announced Wednesday that it has launched a music search service in China which will offer users a unique archive to choose music from, in a simple and legal manner, a move that would likely lower the rate of music piracy.

With the launch of free music search service for China Google apparently has come in direct competition with Baidu.com Inc., China’s largest Internet search firm, in the Chinese Internet search market.

Available at google.cn/music, the beta version of a Chinese music service called Music Onebox is only accessible by Chinese Internet users. The service allows users to search by singer and song title. The service will block non-China users from accessing the music.

"We are launching Music Onebox to give users an easy and legal way to find the music they're looking for, and to give music labels and publishers a new channel to distribute, promote and make money off of their valuable music content," a Google spokesperson said.

The free music search service for China will be promoted through Google’s home page by directing users to Top100.cn, a music Website, to download or stream tunes for free.

"This legal music service will help users avoid dead links, slow downloads, inaccurate search results, and poor quality or incomplete songs," Google said in a statement.

According to International Federation of Phonographic Industries, more than 99 percent of all music files distributed in China are pirated. The London-based agency says that despite China's large potential market, the legitimate sales of $76 million a year in the country account for less than 1 percent of global sales.

Google said the advertising revenue would be split between Beijing-based Top100.cn site, which has financial backing from basketball wonder Yao Ming, and the music labels and publishers. However, the U.S. search powerhouse said it would not share in the money made off of ads on the music service.

The new service would likely significantly boost Google’s presence in the Chinese Internet market, and apparently is a direct challenge to Beijing-based Internet search engine Baidu.com.

Beijing-based Internet search engine Baidu.com, which takes its name from an ancient Chinese poem about a man in search of love, is China's most popular search engine, with 64 percent of the sector's revenues, followed by Google Inc.'s China arm with 26 percent, and Yahoo Inc.'s China site with 9.6 percent.