Updated 28 May, 2012, 6:13 pm IST

Baidu, EMI Launch Streaming Service

16 Jan, 2007, 12:50 pm IST | by Sharon Khare |

Baidu.com, the leading Chinese language Internet search provider and EMI Music, have announced a pioneering strategic partnership to launch an advertising-supported online music streaming service in China, a revenue-sharing arrangement between an internet search engine and an international music company in the country. EMI and Baidu have also agreed to explore developing advertising-supported music download services.

The agreement will see Chinese repertoire from EMI's Typhoon Music being made available for streaming, at no charge, to all users of Baidu, the leading search engine in China.

Baidu will set up a special 'EMI Music Zone' in its music search channel which will legally stream all of EMI Music's Chinese repertoire, including recordings from artists such as Jolin Tsai (Taiwan), Stephanie Sun (Singapore), David Tao (Taiwan), Sandy Lam (Hong Kong) and Richie Ren (Taiwan). While consumers listen to the music for free they will be exposed to internet advertising, and EMI and Baidu will share the revenue generated by the advertising, a pioneering approach to monetising and promoting digital music in China.

Baidu is the largest internet portal in China and the fourth largest in the world. According to the 2006 report from the official China Internet Network Information Center, Baidu has a market share in overall search of 62.1%, while the latest report from iResearch, a leading market research company for China's internet industry, calculates that the company has an 84% share of music searches.

Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu said, "We believe this partnership with EMI will drive value for Baidu users, content providers and advertisers. It also sets the stage for future co-operation between the internet and music industries."

"With Baidu's close relationship with Chinese digital music lovers, EMI and Baidu's co-operation is a major breakthrough in the history of online music in China. It provides an efficient digital distribution platform to reach Chinese consumers, allowing fans to listen to EMI's latest quality music immediately on the internet," said Norman Cheng, Chairman of EMI Music Asia and Director of Typhoon Music.

"The cooperation between Baidu and EMI also moves us towards jointly controlling digital piracy, something that is important to EMI in the Chinese digital music market. Our co-operation with the world's largest Chinese search engine is also part of EMI's strategic roadmap to expanding digital music development across the region," added Mr. Cheng.

Tags: Baidu , EMI

We just saw reports on how Google needs to gear up control over its open source Android platform. Companies like Amazon and Baidu may just cost Google some of its