The tax haven plans to introduce an island-wide charge that allows residents unlimited legal downloads from P2P sites. And if it goes ahead, we'll be moving office ...

Visitors may soon travel to the Isle of Man not just for low tax rates, "spuds and herrin", or to gape at the Bee Gees' birthplace – they may go to download music. The island's government has announced plans to introduce a compulsory music licence, allowing unlimited legal music downloads.

Speaking at the MidemNet conference in Cannes, the Manx inward investment minister explained that the island has achieved 100% broadband penetration and now seeks that its citizens be able to download music with impunity – under an island-wide blanket licence.

"At the end of the day, we're not going to stop piracy," Ron Berry said. "Had the music industry embraced [Napster], we'd have a very different medium today."

The Isle of Man's proposed scheme follows a similar model to legislation that was rejected by French parliament in 2006. Internet subscribers would pay an extra monthly fee to their ISPs, who would in turn purchase a blanket music licence from rights holders. Users would then be permitted to download whatever music they pleased, from whatever source – rogue P2P networks, shady BitTorrent trackers – without any legal repercussions.

"It effectively negates piracy," Berry told BBC 6 Music. "It legalises what's already going on and what's already going on in a big way ... It's something that's been talked about on a number of occasions but we are offering an opportunity to really do it and do it quickly as a test bed."

Though major labels have yet to sign up to the plan, they have backed similar propositions elsewhere. It is the ISPs themselves who generally oppose these initiatives, resisting legislation that forces them to raise the price of internet access. Under the Isle of Man's plan, every internet user would have to pay the licence – whether or not they intend to download material.

"It may be as low as a euro a month," Berry emphasised. "That doesn't sound like an awful lot of money ... You have to look at the numbers involved. If you work that up into, say, Telefonica terms with 120 million users, €120m euros a month from one ISP is worth considering." The failed French plan posited an €8 to €12 monthly fee.

"I think the timing is right," Berry said. "I think we just need to get that major rights-holder on board to say, OK, let's see how we can make it work in the Isle of Man."