|
contents | world | |||||||||||||
| Baidu and EMI launch advertising-supported streaming service Baidu and EMI Music announced a pioneering strategic partnership to launch an advertising-supported online music streaming service in China, the first revenue-sharing arrangement between an internet search engine and international music company in the country. EMI and Baidu have also agreed to explore developing advertising-supported music download services. This 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. With over 150 million internet users in China and the clear popularity of Chinese music, this new service provides a new business model in China for the development of the online music market. Mr Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu said: "We believe this co-operation between Baidu and EMI will create a meaningful ecosystem for value generating services for Baidu users, content providers and advertisers. The co-operation with EMI, the world's best music major and no.1 Chinese repertoire music company, has set the stage for win-win co-operation between the internet and music industries. It also sets the direction and a new model for future ongoing digital music business development in the internet era." "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." Baidu.com, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. As a technology-based media company, Baidu aims to provide the best way for people to find information. In addition to serving individual Internet search users, Baidu provides an effective platform for businesses to reach potential customers. Baidu's ADSs, each of which represents one Class A ordinary share, are currently trading on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "BIDU". EMI is the world's largest independent music company, operating in 50 countries. Its EMI music division represents around 1300 artists spanning all musical tastes and genres. Its record labels include Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Nashville, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, EMI Televisa Music, Manhattan Mute, Parlophone and Virgin. Typhoon Music is a joint venture company through which EMI owns controlling stakes in music companies operating in the People's Republic Of China and Hong Kong. In the PRC, Typhoon/EMI opened for business in 2003 and has the largest share of local repertoire amongst the world's major music companies with artists including The Flowers, Anson Hu and Xu Wei signed to Typhoon/EMI's PushTyphoon label. In Hong Kong, Typhoon's Gold Label company is a full-service record label, artist management company and concert promoter for artists such as Justin Lo, Leo Ku and Ronald Cheng. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |