Baidu reaches agreement with music studios

Baidu Inc's Shanghai headquarters. Baidu users will be able to stream and download music from Universal Music Group, Warner Music and Sony Music Entertainment, the search engine said in a news release on Tuesday. [China Daily]

Baidu Inc, China's biggest search engine, signed an agreement Tuesday with three major international record companies for licensed distribution of digital music through its music search service.

Under the agreement, users will be able to stream and download music from Universal Music Group, Warner Music, and Sony Music Entertainment, on the search engine. Baidu will pay the record companies for each play and download on its music search service.

"I'm confident that Baidu, the Chinese music fans, recording artists, and the record companies will all benefit from this partnership," said Jennifer Li, Baidu's chief financial officer, in a news release.

Before the agreement, Baidu had been widely accused of its infringement on copyrights on its Baidu MP3.

Baidu Wenku, a platform where users can read, download, and share documents and books free of charge, was also criticized for copyright infringement.

The search engine pointed in the news release that it will only offer licensed music content on a new social music platform, Baidu Ting, according to Catherine Leung, general manager of the company's digital entertainment business.

Baidu Ting will be supported by advertising and One-Stop China will license to Baidu its catalogues and new releases which can be streamed or downloaded from Baidu's servers.