Google's MP3 search engine debuts in China

Confirming about six months of speculation, the search giant said Wednesday it had launched a music search feature on its Chinese site with partner Top100.cn.

Rumors of a tie-up first appeared in early February in The Wall Street Journal, and later it was rumored that Top100 had signed a deal with Google. Wednesday's news confirms that speculation.

Top100.cn is a start-up founded by Chinese-born NBA star Yao Ming and businessman Ge Chen. Baidu remains the dominant player in search, and the move is likely in an effort to put itself on par with the company.

Baidu has about two-thirds of the search traffic in the country, while Google only has 26 percent. It is estimated that as much as 30 percent of Baidu's traffic comes from its music search engine alone.

However, Baidu's listing of unlicensed content has angered the music industry. The deal between Top100 and Google attempts to appease the labels by giving them a portion of the revenue from displaying advertising on the service's pages.

Tracks will be given out free, and without DRM, in MP3 format. Streaming media and lyrics would also be provided at no charge. To sweeten the offer, the service will also be able to sell so-called "ringback tones" to customers through a partnership with China Mobile.

Mainly Chinese music will appear on the site at launch, which will be searchable by song title or artist name. It was not specified when international acts will begin appearing through the service.

Offering free MP3s and then attempting to pay for them through the sale of advertising seems to be the only viable way to deal with the problem of piracy in China, which is staggering.

The IFPI estimates that less than one percent of all downloaded music is obtained through legal means. With such pervasive piracy, its rather unlikely that Chinese consumers would respond to a service where downloads must be paid for.