Playlouder is offering the first legal alternative with a comparable experience to the “peer to peer” file sharing sites often used to swap pirated tracks.
Subscribers will be charged £26 a month for a high speed broadband internet connection, similar to the price charged by BT, with the added attraction of being able to share as much music as they want with other subscribers at no extra cost.
Because there will be no restrictions on the format in which the traded music is encoded, users will be free to transfer songs to any type of digital music player, including the market leading Apple iPod, or burn them to CD.
However, not only will consumers have to pay for music which they currently acquire free, albeit illegally, but they will also have to change their internet provider.
After signing the UK licensing deal with SonyBMG, whose acts also include George Michael, Bruce Springsteen and Dido, Playlouder’s chief executive, Paul Hitchman, is confident that its big rivals will follow suit.
It has already signed deals with dozens of independent labels affiliated to the Association of Independent Music, representing artists such as the White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand and Dizzee Rascal.
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