Pearl Jam accuses AT&T of Lolla censorship

Tens of thousands of people at Grant Park in Chicago on Sunday night heard Eddie Vedder lay into President George W. Bush during the band's headlining Lollapalooza set. But for those that were watching online via AT&T's Blue Room, the comments were missing from the band's stirring performance of the song "Daughter." During the song, Vedder sang the following lyrics to the tune of "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd: "George Bush, leave this world alone," and "George Bush, find yourself another home."

In a blog post on the band's Ten Club Web site, the band bristled at the move. "When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them," the blog stated. "AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media."

In a statement, AT&T said the removal of the comments was "not intended, but rather a mistake by one of the webcast editors," adding that editing policies were in place not to censor sets but to cut down on excessive profanity because the broadcasts are not age-restricted. AT&T also confirmed it is working with Pearl Jam to post the original, uncut version of the song, though no date has been announced.

SpiralFrog finally debuts beta

SpiralFrog, the free, ad-supported digital music service that drew a slew of attention last year when it inked licensing deals with Universal Music and several other labels, finally debuted a beta version this week. The company had been on shaky ground during most of 2007 following management shakeups and delays. A planned December launch didn't happen, and CEO Robin Kent walked out following a rift with founder Joe Mohen.

Mohen told CNET News.com that SpiralFrog has quietly invited a select number of users to test a beta version of the site. Mohen said SpiralFrog will offer 700,000 songs at launch and be the first ad-supported site to offer video for download. He estimated that SpiralFrog will be ready for a public launch sometime before the end of the year.

"We're offering a high-quality music experience free to consumers and supported by advertisers," Mohen told the site. "We think the primary reason to use the site will be to discover new music."

Pandora creates Facebook widget

Users of fast-growing social-networking site Facebook are now able to place the Web-based player for music recommendation provider Pandora within their profile pages. Pandora, which has been expanding its platform of late with deals with MSN, Sonos, and Sprint, created a Facebook widget that allows users to move the player around on their pages.

Users must have an active Pandora account to position the tailored stations. Once installed, interested listeners are sent to the Pandora destination to enjoy the streams. Pandora founder Tim Westergren said the widget was launched quietly as the company worked out the kinks but is now in full swing.

Universal invests in hip-hop site

The world's largest music company has taken a stake in a site dedicated to online battle rap. Universal Music Group said today that it has made an equity investment in Loud.com, the company cofounded by veteran hip-hop impresario and CEO of SRC Entertainment Steve Rifkind.

Loud.com operates two portals, Loud.com and Battlerap.com, which allow aspiring MCs to download beats and use online editing tools to rap over them. Users then upload their songs to compete with other aspiring MCs and DJs online.

Each "battle" is officiated by a panel of celebrity hip-hop producers, with a 10-round head-to-head elimination resulting in a Loud.com Showdown final. The final winner will receive $100K in cash and a recording deal with SRC Records, Rifkind's label that has a distribution deal with Universal.