China's portal website Sina.com will team up with five leading
international record companies to provide copyrighted music online,
Sina announced on Thursday.
The music library will generate revenues from advertising and
providing wireless value-added services such as musical ringtones.
Profits will be shared by Sina and the record companies that
include EMI, SONYBMG, Universal and Warner Music, the company
said.
Analysts believe all parties involved will benefit from the move
as the website will consolidate its revenues while the record
companies will be able to arrest, to some extent, the decline in
profits caused by widespread pirating.
Yang Huiying, President of the SONYBMG China corporation, said
digital music had gained tremendous popularity in China, which
provides great opportunities for record companies.
"The website will launch a pay-per-download service in the
future if everything goes well," said Cao Guowei, Chief Executive
Officer of Sina.
Sina's online advertising revenues rose by a huge 41 percent
last year from 2005, hitting US$120.1 million.
Its non-advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, however,
dropped 23 percent, as wireless value-added service sales such as
text-messaging services, ringtones, wallpapers and other mobile
phone add-ons, fell by 11.5 percent.
Analysts predict the market share of digital music in China's
music industry will jump five-fold from last year to reach US$14.9
billion by 2010, accounting for 40 percent of the overall
industry.
(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2007)