Virgin Media and Universal Music today unveiled plans for a digital music service in an effort to change in the way UK consumers buy and listen to music.

The service will enable any Virgin Media broadband customer to both stream and download as many music tracks and albums as they want from Universal Music’s entire catalog, in return for a monthly subscription fee. Downloaded music will be theirs to keep permanently and to store on any MP3 compatible device. An “entry level” offer will also be available for customers who download music regularly, but may not want an unlimited service.

The service is intended to launch later this year. Virgin Media is negotiating with other UK major and independent music labels and publishers in an attempt to ensure it can offer a fuller catalog by the time it launches.

The two companies plan to cooperate in protecting Universal Music’s intellectual property and drive a material reduction in the unauthorized distribution of its repertoire across Virgin Media’s network.

According to Virgin Media’s press release, “This will involve implementing a range of different strategies to educate file sharers about online piracy and to raise awareness of legal alternatives. They include, as a last resort for persistent offenders, a temporary suspension of internet access. No customers will be permanently disconnected and the process will not depend on network monitoring or interception of customer traffic by Virgin Media.”

Virgin Media is the UK’s first quad-play provider of broadband, TV, phone and mobile and has nearly 10 million customers. The company is the largest residential broadband provider in the UK, using a fibre optic cable network to deliver internet access of up to 50Mb to just over half of all of its customers’ homes.

Kathy Sandler reports for The Wall Street Journal, “With the as-yet unnamed service, Virgin Media broadband customers will be able to stream and download as many music tracks and albums as they want from Universal artists. The monthly subscription fee will be roughly equivalent to the cost of a couple of albums, or about £15 [US$25 per month], according to people familiar with the matter. The music is theirs to keep and will be in MP3 format compatible with music players like Apple’s iPod.”

Full article here.