Google's free music search service has been in the making for quite a while, and now they've taken off the beta label, meaning that the service is here to stay. It's a necessity, really; to be able to compete with Baidu, which also offers music downloads (the legality of which is, however, disputed) and holds over 60 percent of the search market, offering free music downloads is a must for Google.
Google's service offers some 350,000 songs from Chinese and foreign artists that can be freely downloaded; according to Gary Chen, CEO of Google's partner in this venture, www.Top100.cn, that number should rise to some 1.1 million in the following months. Google is splitting the advertising revenue share with Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI and Universal Music, but such deals are unlikely to happen in countries other than China, where the pirated-to-bought music ratio is radically different. Furthermore, although anyone can access the service at this address - www.google.cn/music/homepage - you cannot download the songs if you're not connected to the internet from China.
Still, it's interesting to see how very different business models can be arranged with the major labels, depending on the state of the market. Free music downloads is not something they would consider, for example, in the US, but in China they're happy with this deal. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.