Google Launches Free, Legal Music Downloads in China

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 30, 2009 @05:12AM from the still-the-underdog-somewhere dept.

Wired is reporting that Google has a launched a new music download service in China to better compete with the leading search company there, Baidu.com. Offering some 350,000 songs, a number set to rise to somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.1 million in the coming months, the library includes both Chinese and foreign artists signed by Sony Music, EMI, and Universal Music. Proponents of the new service are also hoping it will combat illegal music downloads simply by offering higher quality songs for download. There are no immediate plans to expand this service beyond China.

1 of 141 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

How do you compete with free? by billlava · 2009-03-30 05:19 · Score: 0, Offtopic

If they're hoping this will stop Chinese piracy, they are crazy. Offering higher quality music with a price will only cause the pirates to up their quality, which will trickle down and benefit Chinese downloaders and purchasers of cheap MP3 CDs from Siberia to South Africa.