(This article originally appeared on ArtistsHouseMusic.org.)

It has been a very interesting week in the music world. First up, Radiohead signed a deal with British indie label XL Recordings for the physical distribution of their CD “In Rainbows”. This follows their much talked about digital release of the CD where the band allowed its fans to choose how much they wanted to pay for the album.

Prince – long time philosophical opponent of major record labels took a page from the RIAA’s playbook and have sent cease-and-desist notices to three fan sites. According to the fans, who have setup a website dedicated to the issue at www.princefansunited.com, “Several of the largest web communities dedicated to the artist have received notices to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince’s likeness. It is our belief that these threats are not made in an attempt to enforce valid copyright as Prince alleges in his threats, rather we believe they are attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince.”

And speaking of infringing on copyright a new study commissioned by Industry Canada and conducted collaboratively by two professors from the University of London, Industry Canada, and Decima Research to get extensive data on Canadian population purchasing habits found that there is a positive correlation between peer-to-peer downloading and CD purchasing.

I hate to say I told you so… but…

And finally this week you’ve got to hand it to Universal. On the one hand, President Jeff Zucker thinks that Apple has ruined the value of digital content. But Universal is a label that seems to have a try everything approach to digital distribution. Their music is available for purchase on iTunes, through ad supported Windows Media files on Spiral Frog and now Universal Music Classics & Jazz is making its entire catalogue available in mp3 format without copying protections at www.classicsandjazz.co.uk. It appears that this might be limited to UK residents only and is currently limited to a three month trial run. An interesting but little noted tid-bit about the site is that it offers incentives for purchasing and for referring other purchasers in the form of points. These points are redeemable for music store credit. Will it work? Without a comprehensive multi-label solution, it might not matter. More as it develops…