Baidu inks deal with record labels

Baidu Inc (BIDU.NASDAQ) has signed a deal with major record labels to provide licensed music files for users to stream or download free from its music site, a popular service that has long been accused of aiding piracy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The files will include all songs from the catalogs of Sony Corp’s (SNE.NYSE) Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi SA’s (VIV.EPA) Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group Corp. Baidu will pay royalties to the labels and a cut of revenue earned from its for-a-fee music services in the future. The music industry has previously claimed that the Baidu MP3 search service was one of the world’s most widely used platforms for unlicensed music downloads; Baidu did not provide pirated music directly on the platform, but its search service provided links to music files around the web.