BSkyB (Sky Broadband, TV etc.) has teamed up with Universal Music to launch a new online music subscription service. UK and Irish consumers will, for a single monthly subscription, be able to enjoy "unlimited" listening with a huge choice of songs as well as the opportunity to download tracks to own forever.

Happily the service will also make it easy for users to listen to songs on a wide range of devices, which will be welcome news to those that loath the inflexible use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) by some firms. Downloaded tracks will work on any mp3-compatible fixed or portable device, including iPods, mp3 players and mobile phones:


The service, which will be operated by a new joint venture company where Sky is the majority shareholder, is scheduled to launch later on this year. Sky is in discussions with other music companies, both majors and independents, and expects to announce further partners soon. Pricing has yet to be revealed.

Sky and the music firms hope that services like this one will help to dissuade consumers from using illegal illegitimate file-sharing (P2P) services to download music. Meanwhile, wider industry plans are already afoot that could see broadband subscribers to various ISPs offered special music downloading discounts with their packages (news).