The British Music Rights (BMR) group has effectively ceased to exist today after UK Music, a new umbrella organisation representing the collective interests of the UK's commercial music industry, launched to replace it and help combat illegal file-sharing (P2P) among broadband ISP users.


The new group intends to launch a collective cross-industry submission to government on illegal file-sharing for October 30th, which will put forward a number of legislative options to help address illicit P2P music downloads:


UK Music also plans to conduct more research into the consumption patterns of young music fans and will introduce a Music Industry Manifesto during 2009. This aims to articulate the range and depth of government support required for the long-term prosperity of music and other creative industries.

Those paying attention will note the somewhat inward looking tone, with customer considerations appearing seemingly absent from the launch text. High per-track prices and the problems inherent with strict Digital Rights Management (DRM) are not touched on.

Regular readers will recall that six of the country’s largest broadband ISPs signed a new anti-piracy agreement with the music industry during July, which opened the door to providers sending out warning letters to customers identified as having downloaded illegal content (here). This was merely the first move and has yet to be built on.