Chinese Baidu.com & EMI Launch Ad Supported Music Streams
Baidu.com, the leading Chinese language Internet search provider and EMI will launch an ad supported online music streaming service in what they believe is a landmark revenue-sharing arrangement between an internet search engine and an international music company. EMI and Baidu have also agreed to explore developing 
advertising-supported music download services,
Baidu had come under fire earlier this year for links that enabled illegal downloads. Baidu is the largest internet portal in China and fourth largest in the world. Baidu has a market share in overall search of 62.1% in China and 84% of music searches. (Full press release after the jump.)
Baidu and EMI Launch Advertising-Supported Streaming Service
BEIJING, Jan. 16 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ — Baidu.com Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), the leading Chinese language Internet search provider and EMI Music, the world’s largest independent music company, today announced a pioneering strategic partnership to launch an advertising-supported online music streaming service in China, a landmark revenue-sharing arrangement between an internet search engine and an international music company in the country. EMI and Baidu have also agreed to explore developing advertising-supported music download services.
Today’s 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.
Mr Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu said: "We believe this partnership with EMI will drive value for Baidu users, content providers and advertisers. It also sets the stage for future co-operation between the internet and music industries."
"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," added Mr. Cheng.
About Baidu:
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".
About EMI:
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. It’s record labels include Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Nashville, Emi Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, EMI Televisa Music, Manhattan Mute, Parlophone and Virgin, for further information on EMI, please visit http://www.emigroup.com/ .
About Typhoon Music:
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.
