This Week In News

Radiohead to Prince: Unblock 'Creep' Cover Videos
After word spread that Prince covered Radiohead's "Creep" at Coachella, the tens of thousands who couldn't be there ran to YouTube for a peek. Everyone was quickly denied _ even Radiohead. All videos of Prince's unique rendition of Radiohead's early hit were quickly taken down, leaving only a message that his label, NPG Records, had removed the clips, claiming a copyright violation. But the posted videos were shot by fans and, obviously, the song isn't Prince's.
CNN Money.com

A Year After iTunes Plus, Apple Faces Stepped-Up Competition
DRM-free music is more prevalent than ever, but does it matter? For all that they appear to have embraced DRM-free music, Sony, Universal, and Warner continue to withhold the unencumbered tracks from Apple, choosing instead to back iTunes's rivals. It would seem that Steve Jobs' proposed future of DRM-free music (Apple would adopt an entirely DRM-free catalog "in a heartbeat," presuming the four major record labels would let Apple do so) has quickly become a reality — if not in quite the way he envisioned.
Dan Moren, MacWorld.com

Musicians Push for Better Sound Online and on Disc
As more listeners turn to music downloads and the compact disc seems headed for history's scrap heap, a growing number of artists are making a renewed effort for better-sounding tracks, online and on disc. It's generally accepted that regular MP3 music files compromise CD sound quality for convenience and portability. (Some listeners argue that even CDs are less than optimal.) Last year, Amazon and iTunes made concessions to upgrade the quality of their download tracks.
Mike Snider, USA Today

The Filter Has Launched
The Filter, a personalized content filtering system, has finally opened its doors to everyone and officially launched. The service was pioneered by musician Peter Gabriel and, at its beginning, was not much more than a playlist creation tool for iTunes. Today, The Filter has morphed into a larger recommendation system that finds not just music, but also movies, TV, and internet videos, customized to your personal tastes.
Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb

Dead Men Do Sell Nikes
They may lack arch support, but Converse shoes have never wanted for tour support, given their traditional popularity among rock musicians. Nike, which owns Converse, plans to strengthen the branding connection between music and the Converse shoe line in the mind of the shoe-buying public by releasing footwear branded with insignia for The Grateful Dead, Kurt Cobain, The Doors and The Beatles.
Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired Listening Post