In a baffling but not entirely surprising move, Universal has decided to require all of their artists to provide only 90 clips of music on their myspace pages. The news comes from Wired Magazine which cited an email from Universal artist Colbie Caillat:

Due to circumstances beyond my control I have to swap the songs out on my page for 90 second versions instead of full length versions. In fact some of the songs have already been swapped as I write this. Every artist signed to a Universal label has to comply immediately.

The story reports that some artists were required to do this a few months ago, but it is apparently trickling through their entire base. It's unclear how the removal of low quality streams will increase CD sales, particularly since it provides some incentive for more morally–questionable methods of hearing music.