gTunes: Google launches free musical Chinese takeaway download service

Davey Winder
Wednesday, 06 August 2008 18:42

Your IT - Entertainment

The Olympics might be just about to kick off in Beijing, but Google has managed to snatch a small piece of media attention by announcing the launch of Google Music Onebox: a free music search and download service in China.

There were some reports earlier in the year which suggested that Google would be entering the Chinese digital music downloads market with the help of EMI, Sony BMG and Universal. The service is now up and running, but exactly which labels are involved is shrouded in some oriental mystery.

According to the Shanghai Daily the Google Music Onebox has been launched with the assistance of the Top100.cn service. Top who what?

Good question, and the answer is that when it was launched in February 2006, Top100.cn claimed to be the largest legitimate music download site in the Chinese market.

Unfortunately for them, and Google, there is Baidu.com to contend with. It's MP3 search and download site is the undisputed market leader as far as China is concerned with some 62.8 percent of the Chinese search market by revenue.

The fact that much of this comes courtesy of that highly controversial music download section is highly relevant. Controversial because there have been lawsuits and complaints from music publishers regarding the copyright status of these MP3s.

Top100.cn, meanwhile, had entered into licensing agreements with both EMI and Sony BMG on launch, as well as domestic Chinese labels. Although Google has not stated which labels form part of the new service, one would assume that part of the attraction of Top100.cn would be those big name licenses combined with the local Chinese outfits.

Whatever, the free musical Chinese takeaway is the first free music download service to come out of the Google stable. It will be interested to see how it pans out, and if it heralds a new wave of gTunes services worldwide...