Prince blocks YouTube cover of Radiohead's "Creep"

What happens when a now-copyright-conservative artist covers a blockbuster from a copyright-radical artist at one of the biggest music festivals of the summer? In this case, the video goes up on YouTube, and is then promptly removed. To add insult to injury, the clip of Prince’s seven-minute rendition of “Creep” was replaced with a snore-worthy clip of two birds preening. We tell no lies.

With the various ups and downs over Prince’s career with the recording industry, it is almost surprising that he protects his name so onerously. Although, because of the strife he went through to reclaim even his name alone, maybe it isn’t so surprising. Currently, Prince and his label do not have any sort of official web presence.

In the same year that Prince was painstakingly removing all remnants of his celebrity and his performances from YouTube, eBay and Pirate Bay, amongst others, Radiohead was setting a new precedent with the name-your-own-price release of In Rainbows.

As for YouTube, the site protects content for the artists who own the copyright. But in this case that would be Radiohead, as Billboard asserts the band owns the song and the videos were recorded by fans, not Prince’s imprint NPG Records. As for the members of Radiohead, they don’t think this is a just a laughing matter; in fact, they think it is "hilarious." Especially because even they, as the songwriters, could not view the clip.

“Really? He's blocked it?” asked Thom Yorke, to Billboard.com. “Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment. Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our ... song.”

Without further adieu, then, here is a new clip of Prince performing “Creep” at Coachella 2008. Enjoy it while you can: