免费下载音乐将成历史?

Three of the world's music giants, Universal Music, the Warner Music and Sony Music Entertainment, are making deals with 15 online music providers in China to stop providing free download services.

Users will have to pay on a per-download or monthly basis for all tracks delivered through the music servers, but can still listen online for free. Accordingly, the sound quality of the songs for download will be substantially improved.

Predictably, web users hold differing opinions toward the move.

"I think it's quite fair. It's a good thing to protect the property rights of the music makers, and for those big fans, I don't think it will be a problem for them to pay for music of better quality."

"As a consumer I must say I'm not quite for it. Because if I can obtain the music from other websites, why would I choose to pay for them? "

Industry insiders have expressed their concerns that the move will only bring the internet giants huge profits, but the profit margin left to record companies or musicians will be limited.

As for such, some points out that relevant parties in China have been struggling to find a sustainable profit model for years.

However, Wang Bin, the secretary general of Copyright Union of Internet Society of China, says the move is an inexorable trend.

"Online music resources used to be quite expensive that not many people can afford it, but with the reducing price, and people getting richer, as well as various mobile devices, more people are willing to pay for it. Besides, if you download free tunes via some small websites, it may contain something inappropriate, including porn and virus."

Wang Bin adds that the deal is being raised as part of the country's efforts to step up protection on intellectual property rights.

In fact, online music providers in China have long been accused of infringement on copyrights.Back in 2008, Universal, Warner and Sony Music sued Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine, for at least 63.5 million yuan for copyright infringement. Contrary to that, the world's largest music retailer Apple has long been charging through its Itunes online store.

Wang Bin says she expects the charging practice to be feasible in China as well, adding it would have significant impact on the country's internet industry.

"It is of the greatest significance that all companies in the sector do this together. The change will need efforts in persuading users into supporting the authorized edition. It will help balancing interests among websites, the owners of intellectual property rights and the public."

Five large companies are expected to join the charging deal, which include Baidu, Tencent, Duomi Music, Ku-Gou and Ku-wo. The five companies occupy about 95 percent of the online music share in China.

For CRI, I'm Su Yi.