• The House Small Business Committee Chairwoman doesn't want to get involved in the webcaster royalties issues. At a hearing yesterday she said, "I really don't think Congress would be the best type of vehicle to resolve this type of issue. July 15 is just around the corner, and I hope the two parties can come together and resolve this issue." She hinted that webcasters and SoundExchange could change the definition of a small webcaster, which would allow larger companies to pay lower rates. (BusinessWeek.com)

• As the U.K. division of Sony BMG announces it will not be part of the global plan for the upcoming Prince album comes news that Prince is planning to use the album as a free giveaway with copies of a The Mail on Sunday newspapers. As one would expect, music retailers are incensed. Price also plans to bundle a digital copy of the album with each ticket sold for an upcoming series of London concerts. In May, The Mail on Sunday drew the ire of Mike Oldfield when The Mail gave away copies of his classic album Tubular Bells (The Guardian)

• Much ado about nothing? Retuers has an article about music executives who are fretting that the iPhone will "too much clout to Apple Inc. in shaping the future of the fledgling mobile music market." Once again, maybe I'm missing something but the iPhone is an iPod with a phone attached. It sideloads music just as an iPod sideloads music. I agree with Groove Mobile CEO Adam Sexton: "I don't think the iPhone is going to be the game changer that people are predicting." It will change the mobile phone game, but until it introduces a drastically new way to purchase and experience music, it won't change the mobile music game. (Reuters)

• MySpace Music and Snocap have combined to co-sponsor a tent at this summer's Warped Tour. If those kids have either a credit card or a PayPal account, that will turn out to be a great promotion for Snocap. (Snocap)

• Just how few decent music DVDs are being released these days? A year ago, there was only one music DVD in the top 20 that had been out for 100 weeks or more. Last week, there were six releases in the top 20 that had been out for over 100 weeks.

• Jupiter analyst Mark Mulligan offers analysis of the BBC's online broadcast's from the annual Glastonbury music festival. "The online content include information on acts, photos of performances etc. All of which were great discovery tools. I personally ended up buying a dozen or so tracks from acts I’d seen for the first time. And now the BBC has updated the site to provide video and audio highlights." (Mark Mulligan's blog)

• In this review of Ash's Twilight of the Innocents, The Guardian is still talking about the death of the album. Dorian Lynskey hits the bullseye when pointing out that that the band, which has disavowed the album format for good, never was an album kind of band to begin with. "But whatever the logic (let's assume the resultant publicity was just a happy side-effect), Ash are prime candidates for this experiment. Like Slade, Madness or the Sugababes, they excel at sprints, not marathons. If you could only own one Ash album, it would have to be their impeccable singles collection, Intergalactic Sonic Sevens." (The Guardian)