AFP - At its annual French Riviera gathering this week, the ailing music industry considered whether legal streaming services that offer millions of tracks via the Internet might offer a breakthrough.

But the question is whether fans can be convinced to pay for a service that currently is largely ad-supported and free.

"We want to do more as a music company to make paid services as attractive as they possibly can be relative to free options," senior Warner Music exec Stephen Bryan said at the just-closed four-day MIDEM fest, the industry's largest annual get-together.

Streaming services such as Sweden's highly successful Spotify, US-based Mog.com and Britain's We7, which launches in February, have all based their strategies on convincing fans to pay for a service, free until now.

And mighty Apple is believed to be readying to offer a similar service via its hugely successful iTunes store.

Listening to music via streaming is listening to what you enjoy best for as long as you like.

Spotify has established itself as the biggest music subscription service in Europe, offering 250,000 paid customers the option of listening to music via the Internet or through their mobile phones.

But industry watchers estimate paying subscribers account for less than five percent of the service's users, too little to make the business viable.

And news that the co-founder and head of French music-streaming service Deezer, which recently tried to switch from a free service to a subscription one, had been ousted by investors, cast a cloud.

MOG founder, CEO and self-confessed music junkie David Hyman is nonetheless planning to move into Europe services in the not too distant future.

"Our aim is to launch our service in Europe shortly," Hyman told AFP in an interview though he declined to name a date or the country.

US-based MOG launched a digital music subscription service, called MOG All Access, in December 2009 that Hyman claims is unrivaled in quality and ease-of-use where users can listen to just about every album and song imaginable.

Users pay five dollars a month to access six million songs, personalized radio capabilities, easy playlist creation and very sound quality.

The service also gives users access to the largest network of music blogs on the Web that attracts over 10 million visitors each month.

Crucially, MOG also has major record labels on board via Universal Music Group and Sony Group, and Hyman said he had come to Cannes as MIDEM is the place to get licensing deals with labels done.

Some services like Spotify offer fans mobile applications and premium sound quality, but it comes at a price.

Others, such as MySpace, which launched streaming services recently in the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, plan to raise revenue by also using their service to sell tickets and merchandise.

"It's early days but we're optimistic about the future," said Spotify's Ek.