Google China Launches Music Search

Aug 6, 2008 at 9:06am ET by Barry Schwartz

Music 2.0 has shared detailed screen captures and commentary on the launch of Google China Music Search. I personally cannot get to this site (”Sorry, Google is not your region provide you with the services they need” message appears”), but Music 2.0 does have screen captures and calls this Google service “more impressive” then many of the international counterparts.

Google China Music Search ranks music on the home page by some form of popularity metric. You can clearly search by artist name and other criteria. You can even download the DRM-free music in mp3 format at a rate of 192kbps. Google offers the ability to stream the music via a Flash player. Lyrics are also provided in a pop up window. The pages seem to contain advertisements but I am not sure if the revenue is shared with the musicians.

In February, Danny wrote a piece named Google To Fight Baidu In China With Legal Music Downloads? That article goes more into the other services available in China and some of the challenges Google will have in the Chinese market.

Baidu has been plagued with copyright lawsuits over music search in the past; the most recent news we have is that they beat the music labels in court.

Postscript: A Google spokesperson gave us a statement clarifying the ads in this application:

Google does not share in the revenue generated by advertising in connection with its Music Onebox product in China. All ads visible on the product in connection with the product run on Top100’s website and revenues from those ads are shared between Top100 and its music label and publisher partners.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

See more articles by Barry Schwartz >

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