Google Inc., owner of the world’s most-used search website, started a free online-music service in China offering songs by such artists as U2, Beyonce and Kanye West in a market with almost 300 million Web users.
The service allows users to download and save songs from Warner Music Group Corp., Sony Corp., Universal Music Group, Broadcast Music Inc. and 140 independent labels, Google said in a statement Monday.
Google’s music offering helps it match services provided by Inc., which in China has more than double the market share of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company. The record companies will get a share of revenue from ads, generating sales for them in a market where 99 percent of all downloads are illegal, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. “It’s really a case of innovate or die for the music companies in China,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of research company BDA China Ltd. Eugene Tang and Mark Lee, Bloomberg News Service
