Music One Step Closer to Becoming an ISP Feature

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Griffin_2 Warner Music Group has big plans to license its music to ISPs, as part of an overall industry plan the label hopes will materialize let people share unlimited music without infringing on content.

Essentially, you’d pay a sort of "music tax" through your ISP that would be divided among labels and artists depending on whose music was played or downloaded the most.

To help execute the plan, WMG hired Jim Griffin last month, a well-known digital music strategist who posted the first label-approved audio file on the internet.

He recently told the crowd attending his panel at South by Southwest that an ISP surcharge is the best way forward for the music industry and music fans. It’s unclear at this point whether all ISP subscribers, including non-music fans, would have to pay the fee.

Griffin explained to Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com that the record industry needs to leave music sales behind and move tothe idea of music as a service, and that the best way to do that is atthe ISP level.

Today, it has become purely voluntary to pay for music," Griffin toldPortfolio.com in an exclusive sit-down this week. "If I tell you to golisten to this band, you could pay, or you might not. It’s pretty muchup to you. So the music business has become a big tip jar…"

"We’re still clinging to the vine of music as a product," Griffin says, calling the industry’s plight "Tarzan" economics.

"But we’re swinging toward the vine of music as a service. We need toget ready to let go and grab the next vine, which is a pool of moneyand a fair way to split it up, rather than controlling the quantity anddestiny of sound recordings."

    

Ifyour ISP offered an option that let you pay $10/month for the right todownload any music from any label without paying for it or risking alawsuit, would you pay for it?

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(Portfolio; via MusicAlly; Photo of Griffin addressing a crowd: Aleksi Aaltonen)