Consumers can look forward to unlimited music downloads as part of their broadband contracts, following confirmation that Warner Music is in talks with the main British internet service providers.

The record label is actively pursuing deals with the ISPs, aiming to establish a new business model in which customers, or ISPs, pay a subscription fee for access to a vast library of songs, rather than buying them on a 'per track' basis.

Separately, three of the major labels – Sony BMG, Warner, and EMI – announced today that they had concluded a deal with a Danish telecommunications company which will open their digital catalogues to broadband and mobile customers as part of their monthly contract.

Confirmation of the UK talks comes after it was reported that Warner's chief executive, Edgar Bronfman, had hired a senior music industry consultant to pursue a similar strategy in the US.

It has been suggested that American broadband customers would pay an additional fee on top of their usual package - possibly about $5 a month - for access to the whole Warner catalogue, which includes artists such as R.E.M., the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Green Day.

A source close to one of the UK's largest ISPs, who would not be named, said: "Conversations are definitely happening with Warner, but the idea is that eventually all the major labels will come on board. The music industry is shifting more and more to an 'access' model, and we're actively looking at services where unlimited tracks would be bundled into a tariff."

Sony BMG and Universal are meanwhile understood to be collaborating in a partnership known as Total Music, which would approach ISPs with a united front and offer their entire music catalogue in return for a share of the monthly revenues.

British ISPs indicated to Times Online that they would be keen to introduce such a service, especially as they want to be able to generate revenue from products other than internet connections, but they said all the labels would have to be on board in order for them to sign up.

"There’s no point in just having one label," a source close to another ISP said. "The catalogue you could offer customers wouldn't be big enough."

The source added that the labels had also proposed that ISPs should give a minimum guarantee of revenue per month derived from such a service. "That is unattractive to us," the source said. "If, on the other hand, they're willing to offer a reasonable revenue share with us, then we can reach an agreement."

Details of Warner's discussions with the British ISPs emerged as the Danish phone company TDC announced that it had struck a deal with Sony BMG, Warner and EMI, to give customers access to more than a million tracks from the labels' digital catalogues as part of their monthly contract.

For no extra fee, mobile and broadband customers of TDC will be able to download tracks from artists such as James Blunt, Brice Springsteen, and Robbie Williams, as long as they continue to pay their monthly bills

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