Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the world's most-used online search engine, has held talks with Universal Music Group to provide song downloads via the Web in China, the world's second-biggest Internet market by users.

Davena Mok, a Universal Music spokeswoman in Hong Kong, confirmed the discussions, declining to provide more details. Marsha Wang, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Google, didn't immediately answer calls to her mobile phone. Today, the eve of Chinese New Year, is a public holiday in China.

EMI Group Ltd. and Sony BMG Music Entertainment may join Vivendi SA's Universal in offering free digital music downloads, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing people familiar with the talks. Baidu.com Inc., China's most-used search engine, and Sina Corp. both have agreements with record companies to offer streaming music on their sites that users can't download to their personal computers.

Mountain View, California-based Google would work with Beijing-based Top100.cn, which currently sells licensed music downloads for 1 yuan (14 cents) a song, to operate the service, the Wall Street Journal reported. The record companies would earn royalties for the music, it said.

As much as 99 percent of music in China violates copyright laws, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group Corp. sued Baidu in China on Feb. 4, accusing the Beijing-based company of violating copyright laws by providing links to pirated music on non-affiliated third-party Web sites. Chinese courts have twice previously ruled Baidu's links don't violate copyright.

EMI signed an agreement to offer streaming music on Baidu's Web site in January 2007 and split revenue from advertising. EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, Warner Music, and Taiwan's Rock Records signed a similar agreement with Sina, China's biggest Web portal, in March 2007.

Baidu had 60 percent of the Chinese search market in the fourth quarter, followed by Google's 26 percent, researcher Analysys International said. China had 210 million Web users at the end of 2007, second only to the U.S., according to the government-backed China Network Information Center.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Liu in Shanghai at jliu42@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 6, 2008 00:48 EST