» Apple has won a case to freeze the royalty rate at 9.1 cents per track, instead of having it head up to 15 cents a track. Apple was denied, however, their request to lower the rate to 4.8 cents. They had said that if the rate increased, they would most likely not operate the store any more.

» A museum devoted to the living Elvis will be closed after two unsuccessful eBay auctions for its entirety. One false alarm: "He did get one bid at his first asking price of $15,000, but it turned out to be from a child playing on a computer." Fucking babies with computers these days.

» A group of Norway consumer representatives have committed to taking Apple to court over their restrictive DRM, which, they say, does not allow them to play iTunes tracks on other devices. Quoted: "The consumer's freedom of choice in the online music market is an important right." How sad, a basic human right ignored for so long.

» A visual artist in Berlin has said that she will smoke the ashes of Kurt Cobain in a spliff during an exhibition in Berlin. The artist, Natascha Stellmach, has said that she acquired the ashes by "magic."

» An act of congress has allowed Pandora to continue paying their old royalty rates, which will allow them to continue operating.

» The Rest, in short: Ice Cube features the grieving family of a 17-year-old student who was shot to death in a video; The conservative Kuwaiti government shuts down a concert after a fan jumps on the stage and gives the artist a kiss; Paris Hilton releases her single, "My BFF"; Coachella moves its date up two weeks; You might never see Kanye as a "black Larry David"; Philip Glass will be composing an opera about the life of Walt Disney; China bans western religious music, including choral pieces set to be performed there in the near future; Universal is feeling the good side of downloading.

» Obits, In Short: Kingston Trio's Nick Reynolds, 75;

» Keep an eye out: I've always been into Joe Henry, and a record he has produced, Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi, is on its way.