Baidu.com Inc plans to share partial advertising income with music publishers next year. The move is in response to complaints about Baidu, the biggest Chinese online search engine, providing what may be illegal music links.

More than 10 domestic record companies, including Taihe Rye Music Co, agreed to sign with Baidu but foreign firms, like EMI and Universal Music, are not involved.

Under the new pact, music publishers can share advertising income from Baidu's music search Webpages if net users listen to the publishers' songs online, Zhang Dongchen, Baidu's strategic development manager, said yesterday.

Baidu expects its fourth-quarter revenue to be between US$34 million and US$35 million. About 20 percent of its online traffic is driven by searches for music services.

Baidu has already signed a deal with Viacom Inc's MTV Network to distribute music videos and MTV programs online. Other overseas record giants, which own copyright for online songs, have declined to meet Baidu officials and prefer to use lawsuits to solve the problem, industry insiders said.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, on behalf of seven firms, filed a suit against Baidu for its alleged links to unlicensed songs in Beijing, seeking compensation of US$212,000. Baidu won that case last month.

Source:佚名