Google is launching a music search engine in China, which will provide users with access to free downloads of licensed songs, Media Guardian reported Wednesday.

After several months of negotiations, Google announced Tuesday night that the new service would be monetized by advertising revenue, which would be split between the music companies and the Chinese music download site Top100.cn.

This launch in China is Google's first music search service. Users will be able to search for songs on Google.cn by singer, song or album title, and then download or stream licensed music for free.

If successful, the venture could hinder China's notorious culture of illegal music downloads, which has hurt the growth of the legitimate digital music industry in the country, Media Guardian reported.

“We believe this partnership will help foster a thriving and legitimate music business in China by providing music labels and publishers with a new channel to distribute, promote and monetize their valuable music content,” the company said.

The Google Music Onebox service will be available only to online users in China. The company hopes it could overhaul the leading local search rival Baidu.com.

Google added that it had no plans to develop its Music Onebox feature in other markets. Despite dominating search engines internationally, Google plays second fiddle to Baidu.com in China.

According to data from iResearch, Baidu makes up almost 63 percent of the search market share in China, while Google holds only 26 percent.

With the target set to be the top domestic Internet player within five years, president of Google's greater China operation Kai-Fu Lee announced plans to hire more staff in April to increase the operation's workforce, part of its push to achieve the goal, Media Guardian reported.