The Guardian

Image source, Gett

After YouTube responded to criticism from the likes of Nikki Sixx, Debbie Harry and Katy Perry last week over the amount of money they pay artists, singer Nelly Furtado has now written a letter responding to YouTube's response. 

Nelly said she'd been inspired by her fellow artists stance on the issues, as well as by the death of Prince.

Another, perhaps more surprising, inspiration is Zayn Malik...

In her argument, Nelly writes, "while it is true that YouTube pays more than nothing, that does not make it fair."  

Read her full blog post, external and YouTube's response, external to artists. 

NME

Welsh band Super Furry Animals have announced their first single in seven years will be a Euro 2016 football song to send the Wales team off to the European Championship. 

Following their 2015 reunion, new track Bing Bong - out on 13 May - will be their first new music since 2009’s Dark Days/Light Years album.

The band credit the "inspirational rise" of the Welsh football team with their decision (it's the first time the squad has qualified for a major tournament since the 1958 World Cup) and say they'll be "emerging from the studio to spread hope and harmony in a reinvention of the totemic, communal anthem".

They add: "Let’s come together this summer, in song and let that song be 'Bing Bong'. 

"Please await further transmissions."

However it's not the OFFICIAL Wales anthem - that's actually been recorded by Manic Street Preachers.  

Mercury Prize-winner Benjamin Clementine has been nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts Award, with his album At Least for Now battling Years & Years' Communion and Key Markets by Sleaford Mods in the pop category. 

The awards, celebrating their 20th anniversary on 5 June, reward all areas of the arts from books to TV and film, comedy and dance. 

Other musical nominations include:

Classical

• Stephen Hough International Piano Series: Debussy and Chopin Royal Festival Hall
• City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: Andris Nelsons' Farewell Concert Symphony Hall 
• Mark Simpson's The Immortal

Opera 

• Krol Roger, Royal Opera House
• Saul, Glyndebourne
• Force of Destiny, English National Opera. 

Banksy's Dismaland Bemusement Park, which hosted shows by Fatboy Slim and Run the Jewels, is nominated in the visual art category. 

Image source, Soundcloud

Streaming site Soundcloud is hoping to tempt fans away from Spotify and Apple Music with the launch of its own subscription service in the UK and Ireland.

Soundcloud Go features all the music you'd normally expect on a premium service - from Coldplay to Bob Marley - alongside the DJ sets, remixes and original tracks that have made the site a haven for musicians around the world.

Like its rivals, it will cost £9.99 a month. Advertisements will start to appear between songs on the free service today.

Soundcloud Go got some unfavourable reviews when it debuted in the US earlier this year. We asked CEO Alexander Ljung about those teething troubles, and whether deals with major labels could jeopardise the site's culture of hosting mash-ups and unofficial remixes.

Read the article here.

The disappearance of Radiohead's internet presence has triggered a flurry of speculation online. What could it all mean? (A new album). What are they going to do next? (Release an album). Is this a comment on the all-pervasive nature of technology in an Orwellian state? (No, it's a promotional campaign for a new album).

Here are some of the best tweets based on the band's mysterious activities.

Image source, AP

A retiree in a tiny community in North Dakota has paid tribute to Prince via the medium of crop circles.

Gene Hanson, who always liked the song Purple Rain, hopped on his tractor and plowed a football field-size version of the late musician's symbol into his corn field.

The 75-year-old says he found an image of the symbol on the internet, put it on his tractor's dashboard and followed the pattern. When he had finished, he got on his aeroplane (naturally) to have a look, and couldn't believe it had turned out so well.  

The glyph is a cross between the symbol for male and female. It appeared on the artwork for many of Prince's biggest albums - and he later adopted it as his name during a fight over his contract with Warner Bros records.

Prince died at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota on 21 April. Over the weekend, his family began the process of dividing up his assets, which are thought to be worth about $100m (£68m)

Image source, Sony Music

All 12 tracks on Beyonce's new album, Lemonade, have appeared in the US singles chart. 

Formation - the song she premiered at the Super Bowl in February - leads the charge at number 10. The rest of the countdown provides a snapshot of the album's tracks in descending order of quality. It's bad news for James Blake.

• 10) Formation
• 11) Sorry
• 13) Hold Up
• 18) 6 Inch - ft The Weeknd
• 28) Don't Hurt Yourself - ft Jack White
• 35) Freedom - ft Kendrick Lamar
• 37) Pray You Catch Me
• 38) All Night
• 41) Daddy Lessons
• 43) Sandcastles
• 47) Love Drought
• 63) Forward - ft James Blake  

Lemonade also debuts at the top of the US album chart, making Beyonce the only artist in chart history to score a number one with their first six records.

Prince also jumps back into the chart, with five albums in the Top 10. Purple Rain also gives the late star his first top 10 single in 22 years, landing at number four. Lack of availability on streaming services means the song sold 282,000 downloads - the highest tally since Adele's Hello in October.

Image source, EPA

Janet Jackson may have postponed her entire world tour to start a family, but it would appear that she's found time to make a new video.

A series of gifs appeared on her Twitter account at the weekend, showing an elaborate dance routine for the song Damnn Baby, from her recent US number one album Unbreakable.

One of the clips features pre-teen dancers Taylor Hatala and Kyndall Harris, who many fans will recognize from Janet's tour, and the recent viral video to rapper Desiigner's hit song Panda.

We'll bring you Janet's latest video as soon as it appears.

Image source, Reuters

Armwear was all the rage at last night's Met Gala - an annual fundraising ball for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City.

Zayn "Zayn" Malik attended with what was either two Iron Man gloves or a half a suit of armour he'd pinched from the British Museum; while New Zealand singer Lorde had her left arm in a plaster cast - we're unclear about whether it's a fashion accessory or a medical necessity.

Here are some of the other looks sported by music stars at the ball. 

Image source, Reuters

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Image source, AFP / Getty Images

Over the weekend, Radiohead gradually deleted their online presence. Tweets and Facebook posts disappeared, while the band's website slowly faded to nothing.

Then, in the early hours of this morning, they posted a stop-motion Instagram video of a bird chirping. 

The clip is presumably a reference to Dawn Chorus - long rumoured to be the name of the band's ninth studio album.

Either that or it's a brave new musical direction. 

Hello and welcome back to a new week of Music News LIVE.

We'll be looking at Radiohead's "disappearance" from the internet, and previewing Beyonce's collaboration with Pearl Jam.

Fasten your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.