Google Creates Free Music Service for China
March 30, 2009 by Stephen Kersey
Filed under Business
Online music in China is getting a makeover with a helping hand from Google. On Monday, a Chinese online music service launched that has more than a million songs in its playlist. The service will be supported by advertisements and will be free to all Internet users based in China.
Google Offers Free Music (Image: Flickr)
To get the more than a million songs, Google reached agreements with about a dozen independent labels in addition to major record labels including Warner Music, Sony Music and EMI. The playlist features both Chinese hits and music from other countries from around the globe.
Up until this point, most music downloaded in China came from illegal sources, which didn’t sit well with music labels. With Google providing the backbone of this service, there is high hopes within China that this will be the solution to give the people of China the music they want while keeping everything legal. For Google and the music labels, this venture could prove to be highly profitable.
In China, it is estimated that less than one in three searches is conducted using the Google search engine. The largest search engine in China is Baidu. Google is hoping that this music service allows its brand name to grow within the country.
