The Songwriters’ Association of Canada is proposing a CA$5 surcharge to every mobile and internet account in Canada, with the proceeds to be distributed to artists, labels and publishers reports Reuters. The SAC claims this would allow Canadians to gain access to the “entire repertoire of Western music” for CA$60 a year and raise about a billion dollars annually (almost double the value of the recorded music industry in Canada in 2006). There’s some resistance from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (which slammed it as a pipe dream) and ISPs (with some saying they wouldn’t police it). There is also complaints that it would effectively destroy any paid-for online/mobile music businesses in Canada, but bearing in mind that if this went through music distributors wouldn’t have to pay royalties for the music they sell to Canadians there are quite a few ways they could survive and prosper under the scheme. Still, the way it’s described here people with a cheap phone that can’t play music would still be paying $5 a month, which doesn’t seem like it’s going to fly. There’s also the question of data charges…