Fri 3rd of April, filed under SEO
Search giant Google is offering free downloads of licensed music tracks in China.
More than 350,000 songs from Sony, Warner, EMI and Universal, will be available to Chinese users of Google after they partnered with music website Top100.cn. The SEO directory and PPC advertiser Google will share advertising with the music labels.
Currently, rival SEO portals in China produce results that point to unlicensed music, which reportedly makes up 99% of all tracks distributed in the country.
Google has a 16.6 per cent share of the search market compared to 76.9 per cent for Baidu.com, according to the Chinese Internet Network Information Centre.
The search engine says it has no plans to expand its music service beyond China.
Move to enhance Google search strategy
Lee Kai-Fu, president of Google in greater China, said the move will enhance the search engine’s strategy. "We are offering free, high quality and legal downloads," Lee said. "We were missing one piece ... we didn't have music."
Research stated 84% of people in China used search engines in order to find music, said Mr Lee. Industry insiders are hopeful the move by Google will cultivate regulation of music downloads.
"This is the first serious attempt to start (monetising) the online market in China. I can't overestimate how important this is," said Lachie Rutherford, president of Warner Music Asia Pacific and Asia chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
The IFPI report that China's total legitimate music market is worth $76m, less than 1 per cent of global recorded music sales.
