S&P reiterates sell

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is
offering a music service which allows free
streaming and downloading of songs from more
than 140 labels, including the four largest -
Warner Music Group, Universal Music, EMI and
Sony. The story notes that Google and its partners
“hope the service will draw users away from
Google’s Chinese competitors, especially Baidu,”
which dominates the Chinese search market.
The service will give record companies about
half of any revenue from banner ads on the site
when they are downloading and streaming songs.
The rest will go to a Chinese site partially owned
by Google called Top100.cn; Google gets more
traffic and can sell search ads on the site.
Standard & Poor’s analyst Scott Kessler said the
music service “will help round out GOOG’s offerings
in the Chinese market, and aid the company’s
market share in the country.” He repeats his Sell
rating on Baidu shares.