music downloads

Baidu signed an agreement with One-Stop China, a joint venture owned by Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music to distribute songs through its mp3 search service. It will put an end to years of criticism for sponsoring illegal mp3 downloads from its servers.

Baidu entered into a deal with One-Stop China for its music catalogues and new releases that can be streamed or downloaded from Baidu's servers.

According to the reports by Chinese official news agency Xinhua, Culture Ministry of China will punish Baidu for allowing illegal music downloads.

An official said that the government will punish 14 websites including Baidu, a top search engine in China, for continued illegal music downloads in spite of many warnings not to do it.

Baidu could not be immediately reached for comment.
 

‘Multiple music industry sources’ report that Google is likely to launch its Google Music service as early as this fall, says the CNET magazine. The magazine pointed to the fact that Google had showed its willingness “to give users of phones equipped with Google's Android operating system a better music offering” at the Google I/O conference last month when it demonstrated a Web-based iTunes competitor.

 Starting next week BSkyB, a British media group, will launch its new digital music service Sky Songs to rival Apple's iTunes and Spotify in the music downloads market.

The company stated on Sunday its service scheduled for the launch on October 19 would allow users to access more than four million tracks for download and ad-free streaming.