Chinese search engine Baidu is coming in from the cold, inking a licensing deal this morning with three major labels for streaming and downloads via its MP3 Search service. The deal is with One-Stop China (OSC), a joint venture between Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music. Baidu will pay rightsholders on a per-play and per-download basis for songs, and the deal also covers its new social music platform Ting, which is free and ad-supported. As part of the deal, the three labels have ended their outstanding litigation against Baidu for copyright infringement. The New York Times has more details, saying the deal is for two years and 500,000 tracks, and that Baidu will remove all deep links to music belonging to the three labels – although not necessarily those to content from other labels. It adds that Baidu will launch a premium service later this year, with users paying for downloads plus a cloud storage locker. OSC’s shareholders have issued a joint statement: “This deal connects One-Stop’s world-class repertoire of licensed music to a massive audience, creating crucial new opportunities for artists. All parties, especially music fans, will benefit from the growth of this type of compelling music service.” Source: One-Stop China
Like what you’ve read here? This is just a snippet from our subscription service.
Our subscribers get the most important digital music news and analysis delivered to them every morning and full reports every week plus access to a massive archive of data and previous reports.
For a free two week trial of Music Ally, sign up here. No strings attached – we promise!
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools :: Wyng
Through Music Ally’s internal marketing campaign tracking, we’ve recently discovered an interesting website by the…