Virgin steps up antipiracy enforcement with DRM-free music service

Valerie | 16 Jun 2009, 08:37

Virgin Media has partnered with the world’s biggest music label, Universal Music, to launch an unlimited music download service with a difference.

Signifying the latest retreat from the major record companies from DRM, for a monthly fee, the new music subscription service will enable subscribers to download or stream as many tracks and albums as they want in MP3 format and keep the music they have downloaded even if they stop paying the monthly fee. It builds on similar “all you can eat” download services such as Nokia’s Comes With Music and comes as the UK Government outlines its plans on Britain’s digital future in a report out today.

As part of the deal, Virgin has pledged to aggressively police usage to stop the MP3 tracks turning up on file-sharing networks. This will include educating users but for persistent offenders, the last resort would be a temporary suspension of a customer’s internet connection if that person consistently ignored warnings about their activity.

In a statement, Neil Berkett, Virgin Media’s CEO proclaimed that the new service was an industry first:

“In terms of both convenience and value, our new music service will be superior to anything that’s available online today and provides a fair deal for both consumers and artists.”

The deal was also welcomed by industry trade bodies. IFPI Chairman John Kennedy said the new Virgin-Universal deal was “the kind of partnership” between a music company and an internet service provider (ISP) that he expects to shape the future of the music business internationally.

However, entertainment lawyers said the service was unlikely to solve the global music industry’s problem of billions of dollars lost to music piracy, and would need to offer content from big-name entertainers to be attractive to consumers.

The content industry has been urging ISPs to act as copyright enforcers for some time so the music industry will be watching the experiment carefully. As PA observes, “if content creators can get ISPs and service providers to do copyright enforcement work, they may be willing to publish more content in DRM-free formats that are more appealing to consumers”.

According to PaidContent, Virgin said it would be “negotiating with other UK major and independent music labels and publishers to ensure it can offer a complete, compelling catalogue by the time it launches” later this year.