• Starbucks’ Hear Music label continues its trend of signing music royalty with plans to release James Taylor’s live CD/DVD One Man Band this holiday season. The set will feature Taylor’s recent greatest-hits-filled concerts from the Colonial Theatre in the Berkshires, as well as the stories that inspired the songs.

• Phil Collins (evidently not the Phil Collins) spent the last three years compiling footage of Smiths fans from Colombia, Indonesia and Turkey singing karaoke to cuts from Morrissey and gang’s 1987 album The World Won’t Listen. The fruits of the flmmakers’ labors will debut this fall at the Dallas Museum of Art’s tribute to the Smiths. Also on display: Letters a teenage Morrissey wrote to music magazines.

• Tom Waits, Frank Black, the Cure’s Robert Smith and the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas are among the talented wordsmiths that will judge this year’s International Songwriting Competition.

• Universal’s DRM-free MP3s are more like DRM-lite MP3s: The songs will still be watermarked to see who’s sharing the files on peer-to-peer networks.

• The Shins have announced additional autumn U.S. tour dates that’ll keep them on the road through the end of October. Full dates after the jump.

10/5 – Berkeley, CA (Greek Theatre)
10/6 – Santa Barbara, CA (Santa Barbara Bowl)
10/7 – Los Angeles, CA (Greek Theatre)
10/9 – Mesa, AZ (Mesa Amphitheater)
10/10 – Albuquerque, NM (University of New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall)
10/17 – Atlanta, GA (Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center)
10/18 – Charleston, SC (The Plex)
10/19 – Raleigh, NC (Progress Energy Center)
10/20 – Norfolk, VA (The NorVa)
10/22 – Columbia, MD (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
10/23 – New York, NY (Terminal Five)
10/24 – New York, NY (Terminal Five)
10/27 – Las Vegas, NV (Vegoose Festival)
10/28 – Las Vegas, NV (The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel)

Photo: Cardy/Gett