Baidu Music

Last updated
Baidu Music
Developer Baidu
Platform(s) Cross-platform
Availability China
Website music.baidu.com

Baidu Music is a Chinese music streaming service by Baidu. By December 2015, it had 150 million monthly active users. [1]

Contents

History

In December 2015, Baidu announced that they merged Baidu Music with the record company Taihe Music Group, which owned the copyrights to 700,000 at the time and had licenses with overseas record labels; this allowed Baidu to include more songs within their streaming service. [1] [2] In May 2017, James Lu left Baidu Music. [3]

In 2008, record companies Universal Music, as well as the Hong Kong divisions of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Records, brought Baidu to court in China for allegedly linking to unauthorized copies of music with their music search engine.

The record companies lost the case. [4] Later, in 2011, Baidu signed contracts with record companies that allowed them to receive compensation when a user downloads or streams a song; advertisements on the service's website helped pay for the songs' licensing fees without making Baidu's music search engine a paid-for service. [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 Steven Millward (December 4, 2015). "Already bigger than Spotify, China's search engine giant doubles down on streaming music". Techinasia.com. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  2. "Chinese Music Entertainment Giants Taihe Music Group (TMG) and Baidu Music Merge". Prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  3. "Baidu Vice President James Lu Steps Down – China Money Network". Chinamoneynetwork.com. 26 May 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  4. Fletcher, Owen. "China's Baidu Wins Copyright Case Over Music Search". PCWorld.com. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  5. Arthur, Charles; Agencies (19 July 2011). "Baidu signs music licensing deals". The Guardian . Retrieved 31 January 2016.