The agency, mooted in January's interim Digital Britain report and the subject of a recent consultation with the music and other creative industries, was supposed to help negotiate rights clearance and stamp out illegal P2P file-sharing.

But speaking at Thursday's PRS for Music AGM, Carter conceded his idea, which has attracted almost universal disdain from the music industry, had been "torched by some".

The music industry had complained the proposed DRA duplicated roles already performed by existing bodies, such as ...