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Subscribers to Playlouder, which describes itself as the world's only music ISP and appears to prefer the PLMSP moniker, get a broadband connection plus unlimited downloading of licensed music using established P2P technology.

Sharing is restricted to what Playlouder calls a 'walled garden' of subscribers, using audio fingerprinting to monitor which tracks are shared and pay the appropriate royalties to the record labels.

It employs specially configured routers and firewall technology using 'deep packet searches' to identify and re-route all file sharing traffic to ensure that file sharing can occur only between subscribers.

Sony has already signed up another P2P-based technology, Snocap,

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which is an end-to-end system for digital licensing and copyright management services. It is the brainchild of file sharing pioneer Shawn Fanning, and Sony is clearly keen to create as many different ways as possible to legitimately obtain digital music.

'What I like about PLMSP's service is that it retains the sense of community and spontaneity which makes P2P and super distribution so attractive to consumers, whilst ensuring that this activity takes place within a framework in which the music can be tracked and rights owners get paid,' said Clive Rich, SVP Futures Division at Sony BMG.

Whether P2P can be harnessed to make money for the record labels remains uncertain. Sure it was phenomenally popular, but that probably had a lot less to do with the technology itself and a lot more to do with the fact that the music was free. It is difficult to see what legal P2P has to offer that cannot just as easily be provided by the established downloads stores such as iTunes and Napster.

'PLMSP brings more music and more freedom to consumers,' insists CEO Paul Hitchman, 'and could well be the most important development in digital distribution since the invention of the MP3 format.'

PLMSP can be found at www.playlouder.com.