Key labels back PlayLouder launch: Playlouder's broadband subscribers set to tap into Beggars, XL, V2, Pias and Ninja repertoire.(Online)

A string of key independents are backing the launch of what is being billed as the world's first broadband music ISP.

PlayLouder MSP, which is being prepared for launch in the first quarter of next year, will also allow rights owners to earn royalties from file-sharing of their tracks.

The service is being pitched as a broadband ISP targeted specifically at web surfers who want to use the internet for the downloading and sharing of high quality music.

Subscribers to PlayLouder MSP--a joint venture between PlayLouder and Paul Sanders' software development company State 51--will pay a monthly of 29.99 [pounds sterling] for a broadband internet connection, bundled together with a range of music services.

Companies including Beggars Group, XL Recordings, V2, Pias and Ninja are among the first to provide music via the service, giving users unlimited access to music files featuring repertoire by acts including Badly Drawn Boy, Basement Jaxx, Dizzee Rascal, Sigur Ross, Stereophonics, Underworld and the White Stripes. Royalties will be paid to the rights users for any music shared.

PlayLouder MSP director Paul Hitchman says, "We think that any consumer who is using broadband to access music will get a better service from us, because we are setting up a service particularly tailored to them. This will be the ISP for music fans.

"If BT and AOL are the BBC and ITV of the internet world, we believe that we are the MTV."