Google offers free music downloads!

Google has launched a free music download service in China, sharing advertising revenue with major music labels in a market rife with online piracy.
Lee Kai-Fu, president of Google in greater China, claims one reason Google lagged behind in the mainland search market was because it didn't offer music downloads.

"We are offering free, high quality and legal downloads," Lee claims. "We were missing one piece... we didn't have music."

The service offers downloads of 350,000 songs - from Chinese and foreign artists - a number that will rise to 1.1 million in the coming months, claims Gary Chen, chief executive of Google's partner Top100.cn, a Chinese music website co-founded by basketball star Yao Ming.

Music from artists signed by Sony, Warner, EMI and Universal will be available on the service, which Google has no current plans to expand beyond China.

"This is the first serious attempt to start [monetising] the online market in China. I can't overestimate how important this is," says Lachie Rutherford, president of Warner Music Asia Pacific and Asia chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

Users will be able to search by musical measurements such as the level of "beat" in a song and "instrumentality," as well as by artist and song name.

IFPI said last year that more than 99% of all music files distributed in China are pirated, and the country's total legitimate music market, at $76 million, accounts for less than 1% of global recorded music sales.

The new service will attract users away from illegal download sites because the music and service will be of a higher quality, claims Warner's Rutherford.

While Google dominates the global web search market, Baidu holds more than 60% of the market in China, more than double Google's share.