Local music sharing website Zing.vn, which lost advertising contracts with Coca - Cola and Samsung on October 3 for issues related to the copyrights of music posted on the site, has announced that it has reached an agreement on copyrights with American multinational music company Universal Music Group.

According to the agreement, Universal Music will grant the right to hear the recordings of the company (in the form of streaming and downloading for a fee) to Vietnamese users of this website.

VNG, managing company of Zing, also committed to remove all access from outside the territory of Vietnam to the Universal Music records on Zing MP3.

Nguyen Phi Hung, representative of Universal Music Vietnam, told Tuoi Tre that the two units have worked for a long time to reach the agreement.

“With this agreement, Vietnamese listeners will have more chances to approach world famous artists like Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga,” Hung added.

On October 3, The Associated Press reported that Coca-Cola and Samsung withdrew their ads from Zing.vn to oppose copyright violations on the site.

"We highly respect and value intellectual property rights, and stand against acts of infringement, such as the unauthorized copying and distribution of copyrighted material," Samsung explained. AP newswire called Zing “notorious for providing unlicensed downloads of Western and local songs.”

For its part, Zing.vn gave an explanation about the copyright issue.

“Zing MP3 is one of the leading local units which have purchased many copyrights of songs. For Vietnamese music, we bought copyrights from the Recording Industry Association of Vietnam and the Vietnam Center for Protection of Music Copyright, and we have signed contracts to use songs from hundreds of local well-known singers,” Vuong Quang Khai, deputy general director of VNG, told Tuoi Tre.

“In regards to foreign music, we have been working with big record labels like Universal and Sony Music for years,” he added.

Truong Thi Dung, deputy director of the Recording Industry Association of Vietnam, agreed that Zing is one of the first music websites to buy copyrights from the association.

“The success of the agreement between VNG and such a big label like Universal, especially in the aspect of downloading music at a fee, will open a new model of business and change Vietnamese listeners’ habit of getting music for free,” she added.