New York - In this exclusive Interview from DMW's Digital Music Forum East, Ron Berry, Isle of Man's e-Commerce Advisor, details how the government of this little independent island is trying to be a pioneer in a field where many larger nations are struggling, namely finding a way to compensate musicians in a digital age. The basic idea is to charge Internet users a flat fee for access to music online through their Internet Service Provider and then pass that money on to the collection societies, record labels and other interest groups. Will it work? You'll be the judge. Safe to say that it's an interesting experiment.

Poll: Is An ISP Flat Fee A Good Way To Monetize Music In A Digital Age?

New York - For the past year, Jim Griffin has advised Warner Music Group on digital distribution and licensing models with the goal of bringing an end to the litigation that has put a wedge between the major labels and their customers and replacing it with a regular flow of income for right holders. The project known as Choruss, which is being incubated at Warner and is planned to be rolled out as a non-profit with Griffin at the helm, proposes to build a small music-royalty fee into university tuition payments received from students, and, if successful, could be expanded to make ISPs the collector of the fees. For those of you who were not able to attend DMW's Digital Music Forum East this past week, here is a complete transcript of his interesting keynote presentation:

New York - Fascinating keynote at the Digital Music Forum East this morning from Jim Griffin, an advisor to Warner Music Group and head of the Choruss initiative. I'm getting a text of his speech and will post. But suffice to say he delivered a smackdown to Rick Carnes and Chris Castle over their criticisms of Choruss which ran in op-ed that appeared in Content Agenda and other publications.