Google goes after Baidu — will offer free music downloads
The details are vague, but Google could be on the verge of a significant breakthrough in offering free music over the Web in China, according to the WSJ. If its planned project works in China, it may work elsewhere too.
Google is close to launching joint venture with a Chinese online music company to provide free — licensed — music downloads in China, according to the report. This is significant, because from the beginning, Chinese search engine Baidu.com has beaten Google in China by offering users searches for free, unlicensed music downloads. While there are legal issues with doing this, Baidu has continued to thrive without punishment. Now Google is apparently about to hit back, and do it legally.
Here’s the plan, according to the WSJ:
[Google will offer] high-quality music files embedded with a digital “watermark” that lets record labels track how often their songs are downloaded. The idea: Better-quality files will draw users away from unlicensed downloads, and give labels and search companies valuable data needed to make money from advertising, say people familiar with the plans.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
