Yao Ming, China's richest and most famous sports star, has invested in a music website, one of the few that pays copyright to publishers and charges users for music they download.
The site offers a wide range of Chinese and foreign music, from Beijing opera to Hong Kong and Taiwan pop stars, at one yuan a song, which users can pay for through their mobile phone or bank card.
Most Chinese internet users obtain their music free, by downloading from sites that have posted the music illegally.
In a declaration on the website, chief executive Chen Ge said that, during two to three years of talks with international music publishers, the site had obtained their full support and was adhering to international practice in copyright and would protect the rights of the creators of the music and the consumers who listened to it.
Reports in the press say that Yao, his manager Zhang Mingji and an associate in the music industry jointly invested 20 million yuan in the website, but staff there said they did not know the figure.
Yao, a native of Shanghai who plays with the Houston Rockets in the NBA, is the most well-known international Chinese sportsman and one of the few to establish himself in a big foreign league.