Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has inked a deal with music publisher BMG to increase the reach of its online entertainment business.
This deal gives Alibaba access to BMGs over 2.5 million tracks. The partnership is also notable because this is the first time Alibaba's digital entertainment unit has made an agreement with a music partner outside of Asia.
The business already has agreements with Taiwanese music companies Rock Records and HIM International Music.
The San Francisco-based techcrunch.com website quoted Alibaba, as saying, that the agreement will significantly boost earnings by BMG artists and writers and also gives them a powerful ally in helping grow the legitimate music market in China.
The deal gives Alibaba access to BMG's catalog, which includes tracks from Bruno Mars, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and Kylie Minogue. Music will be made available to consumers through streaming apps like Xiami and TTPod, both of which are operated by Alibaba's digital entertainment business.
Alibaba's growth plans include selling other online services to the huge user base it has grown by operating China's top e-commerce platforms and online payment service Alipay.
Streaming music is a potential growth market for Chinese Internet companies, but they have deal with piracy in China.