Google announced the launch of a new music service called Music Onebox which will offer users a brand new archive to choose music from, in a simple and legal manner.

"We are launching Music Onebox to give users an easy and legal way to find the music they're looking for, and to give music labels and publishers a new channel to distribute, promote and make money off of their valuable music content," a Google spokesperson explained.

The service, available only in China, will be promoted through the company’s home page by directing users searching for a certain song or artist to the Web site www.top100.cn. The service allows downloading and streaming tunes, blocking out all users outside the country.

The financial backing is ensured by Chinese basketball superstar Yao Ming and according to the company’s officials, the money coming in from the advertising contracts will be split between the Web site, music labels and publishers.

The reason why such a strategy was first considered for China is mainly related to the fact that the music companies keep searching for ways of breaking into the market and reaching the same status achieved in the United States and Europe. Once the promotion campaigns will take full effect, the Web site’s traffic will rise and the clients will demand more space for their ads, it is expected that Music Onebox will become a major success for Google.

"This legal music service will help users avoid dead links, slow downloads, inaccurate search results, and poor quality or incomplete songs," Google’s officials explained in a statement, referring to the virtually inexistent paid music download system, which leaves music enthusiasts with the sole option of turning to unsecure and low quality pirated versions of their favorite songs.