Yahoo Taiwan last week launched a download music service that gives the heart of Mandopop its only legitimate music download outlet.
The launch comes a month after the company opened its Yahoo Taiwan Music streaming service, modelled on a similar offering in the United States and Canada.
By providing both streaming and downloads, Taiwan becomes Yahoo's third market worldwide for both services and the first non-English market.
Yahoo Taiwan has some 320,000 songs in its download library, and the number is expected to grow in the coming months. Downloadable songs will be priced at NT$30 ($7.30) with selected songs being priced at NT$25 for subscribers to the streaming service, depending on deals with music labels that own the rights to each song.
Downloaded songs are compressed at 192kbps and use Microsoft's Janus digital rights management. Users will be able to burn any one song on up to five CDs and transfer them to up to three mobile devices.
Yahoo Taiwan launched a monthly subscription streaming service on March 15 with a catalogue of 250,000 songs. In the first two weeks more than 600,000 users downloaded the Yahoo player, and all enjoyed a one-week free trial.
The subscription service costs NT$49 a month, but Yahoo has been heavily marketing the service in cross-promotional deals offering free and discounted subscriptions. A one-month campaign with snacks company Pepsico, which started on April 20, is giving away 100,000 one-month subscriptions, and 500,000 half-price coupons for a one-month subscription.