ISP and music label come together for a subscription model

I’ve been saying it was going to happen. ISPs and music labels would come together to create a subscription service to provide music for users to download legally and it seems it has in the UK.

Virgin Media, a UK ISP, just came together with Universal Music Group to form an unlimited music service. Although it was just announced today, the actual launch won’t be until later this year.

Users of the service will be able to both stream and download as much music as they want from UMG’s catalogue. Of course, they first have to join and pay a monthly subscription fee. No word yet on exactly what that fee will be.

They’ve also stated that the music you download is yours to keep, although at this point they don’t specify whether that means everything you have downloaded, or just a set number of tracks per month can be kept. You never know, that might be one way they get you.