• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 28, 2008

Warner Music Group is floating a proposal again that Internet service providers charge users monthly fees for unlimited access to music, according to Portfolio.com.

The company has hired Jim Griffin, former digital honcho at Geffen Music, to develop a plan to distribute fees from ISPs to musicians, Portfolio reports.

Hopefully the initiative shows that at least one major label realizes it needs a better digital strategy than the current approach -- threatening individual users with lawsuits and then forcing them to risk thousands of dollars in legal fees and fines if they want to defend themselves.

Warner's not the only proponent of this type of music tax. The digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation also has floated the idea, as have the Songwriters Association of Canada and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor.

Still, the plan seems far-fetched. Web users who don't downoad or stream tracks aren't likely to take well to a monthly music fee, while companies that sell music subscriptions won't be happy to see their services made redundant.

There are also practical implementation questions, including how the money would be distributed. Consider, the music industry hasn't been in any hurry to share the wealth from prior settlements. Universal, Warner and EMI reportedly have extracted around $270 million from Napster, Kazaa and Bolt.com, but some individual artists haven't yet seen that money, according to the New York Post. Last month, the Post reported that some musicians are considering filing their own lawsuits against the labels.