Google Launches Free Music Service in China

The focus in China from the world may be on the Olympics in Beijing, but Google currently has plans that has less to do with sports and more to do with free music.

Reuters is reporting on Google’s newly launched free music service. The service will be available through Top100.cn (Google translation)

From the report:

Google said on Wednesday its service would initially let Internet users search tens of thousands of Chinese songs by singer or song title on its website and download them from Top100.cn, a Chinese music website co-founded by basketball star Yao Ming.

Advertising revenue from the service will be shared among Top100.cn and its music partners.

“The Internet industry should by no means stand in the opposite camp against the music industry,” Google China President Kai-fu Lee said in a statement.

“Google always believes profoundly that mutual interest, rather than monopoly, is the key to sustainable growth.”

Google may dominate many world markets like in North America, but the search engine giant pails to search engine rival baidu.com which is the biggest search engine in China. Last year, the IFPI lost a lawsuit against the search engine, but early on this year, the IFPI appears to be trying to sue the search engine again.

There’s little wonder why Google wants to dominate the Chinese search engine market. Late last month, Information Week reported that Chinese internet users recently outnumbered US internet users. It’s clearly something that major companies that use the internet cannot ignore.

It’s unclear if DRM is used in the new service or not. Either way, there doesn’t seem to be a reason why users from around the world can’t check out some of the music other than the fact that the site is in Chinese.

Link to Baidu.com (Google Translated)

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