• Google Offers Free Legal Music in China

    Google Offers Free Legal Music in China

    Techtree News Staff, Aug 07, 2008 1633 hrs IST

    Google's Music Onebox will pave the way to monetize digital music in China for global music labels by allowing users to search and download licensed music files for free.

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Google has launched a new music service dubbed Music Onebox in China, which recently achieved the distinction of having the world's largest population of Internet users. This new music service allows users to search and download licensed music files for free.

The Internet giant has managed to launch this service after months of negotiations with record companies. However, it has not yet revealed the names of the record labels it has officially tied up with for the service.

Along with songs, Music Onebox will also allow users to get information about artists and albums, all of which will be downloaded from Top100.cn, a Chinese music website co-founded by basketball star Yao Ming. This service plays a competitor to Baidu, a very popular search engine in China, which offers music, most of it illegal.

If successful, Music Onebox will pave the way to legally monetize digital music in China for global music labels including Universal Music and EMI, which have artists who are popular in China. This move is significant in an industry crippled by piracy, and dozens of foreign and domestic record labels stand to gain from this service, writes the Wall Street Journal.

According to industry analysts, as many as 90% of Internet users in China download unlicensed music online everyday via search-engine services that provide links to unlicensed music downloads.

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Discussion Board
(7) Comments
NavneetKrS
,Kolkata, on Aug 07, 2008 11:41 PM
Yet another supercool and supersmart implementation by Google where nobody looses but everybody gains (apart from those Chinese search engines ofcourse)! 1. LEGAL FREE MUSIC 4 every1... 2. Capturing a BIG part of market share in the immensely populated chinese internet arena and making its presence felt. 3. Generating Good MONEY 4 the Music companies and Top100.cn even while offering Free music (that too in a extremely low revenue generating but a highly potential Chinese music industry)! 4. KILLING a part of PIRACY alongwith dose other Chinese search engines lyk Baidu (ok.... now every1 loves free music, but this tym... its 100% leagl!) Simply Fantastic!!! that shows wat da GOOGLE folks r capable of....... Donno if Music OneBox will b launced in India (and if 'yes', i dont xpect it 2 b anywhere in da near future...c'mon get real!) but whatever da case Google ROCKS!!!!!
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Moe
,Dubai, on Aug 07, 2008 11:02 PM
Nothing is free people. Google must be paying a lot to get the license to publish the music online. But in return, google and the music producer company ara gaining a lot from the ads placed on the website. for the chinese people, its free,but for google its MONEY!
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GNU GPL Rocks
,Linux, on Aug 07, 2008 09:14 PM
IP means imaginary property, not intellectual property
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sTyLeS
,Castle Rock, on Aug 07, 2008 08:13 PM
Oh sure, why not reward countries and individuals known for piracy by giving them music for free. Let that be a lesson to you all...if you want something for free, just start stealing it, and eventually someone will also start giving it to you...and even if they don't, you still have the stuff you stole. Sheesh!
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TranceBoy
,pasadena,ca, on Aug 07, 2008 08:09 PM
thats not a supprise being an over populated communist country. if you didnt have to pay and were at poverty level would you buy your music?? -TranceBoy
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pssh
,aww, on Aug 07, 2008 06:48 PM
No prob, they'll make up their profit by overcharging Americans...same as the prescription drug industry does. Americans are an endless source of profit, right?
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bharatgoyal
,Gurgaon, on Aug 07, 2008 06:43 PM
Thats a well-thought move. China which is the biggest amongst web-markets, is one where Google is less popular a search engine, thanks to Baidu. So, if it is not search, lets beat the competitor at what he is good at. As I read above, Baidu is offering free (but illegal) music already and Google can attract traffic by offering more music and wait till Chinese let loose any of their behaviourisms with Google. There is always a long-term plan in everything that Google does!!
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