Google Offers Free Music in China

Google may be the bees knees in the US and Europe, but in the People’s Republic of China, the big search engine is Baidu. Since China now has more people on the internet than any country in the world (even if a lot of political sites are blocked), Google obviously wants to break Baidu’s grip. To do that, Google is offering free music in China.

A spokesman for Google said, “We are launching Music Onebox to give users an easy and legal way to find the music they're looking for, and to give music labels and publishers a new channel to distribute, promote and make money off of their valuable music content.”

According to Michael Quinn of the Los Angeles Times, “When visitors to Google's home page search for artists or bands, they are directed to www.top100.cn, a music site, to download or stream music. The site has financial backing from basketball wonder Yao Ming. Google said it would not share in the money made off of ads on the music service. Instead, the ad money would be split between Top100.cn and the music labels and publishers.” So, Google is doing this out of the goodness of its heart?

Brian Zisk, executive producer of the SanFran MusicTech Summit, stated that the whole thing was along the YouTube model. Establish one’s operations as the center of media; in this case, out do Baidu in traffic. Then, figure out how to monetize the traffic. As Mr. Zisk said, “They are establishing their presence there. One way or another, they can turn it into money.”

The question naturally arises, “so when does this free music service come to the US?” One oughtn’t hold one’s breath. The US is where the music industry gets paid; China isn’t. Mr. Zisk says it’s not really a gamble, that there isn’t any cannibalization of revenue, “Well, we’re not making money in China anyway.”

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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