James Delahunty
2 Apr 2011 1:14
Baidu reaches agreement with music group to pay for MP3 downloads through its web site.
Baidu had been in talks with the Music Copyright Society of China, a group that has previously sued the Chinese search giant, to establish a partnership to protect legal digital music. The payment will go directly to the Music Copyright Society of China.
The money only covers the songwriters behind lyrics in the downloads however, and no record companies will receive any. Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo said to pay labels would require a completely different agreement.
"We will also provide the [Music Copyright Society of China] playback and download data, so that they will be able to have some idea of what's actually being downloaded," Kuo said.
Baidu has been the focus of a lot of anti-piracy groups for years due to the popularity of its MP3 search service in China, which helps users to download copyrighted music for free. Some experts claim the MP3 service was the offering that brought Baidu to the top in China, and now 75.5 percent of the country's search market is held by Baidu.
"The changes Baidu is making could create a really wide-reaching music platform through the Internet that will lead to profits for those in the music industry," said Liu Ping, the vice general secretary for the Music Copyright Society of China. "This has never happened before in China."