LIKE A BROKEN RECORD

Congratulations, Fiona Apple fans! The singer has been freed fromherself.

That's the upshot of this week's announcement that Epic willrelease Apple's long-awaited third album, "Extraordinary Machine," onOct. 4. Die-hard fans are already familiar with the work, havingdownloaded tracks that turned up on the Internet. But while theyfought to force Epic to put out the album raising money for theircause on the website freefiona.com they may have misplaced theirblame. According to Billboard, Apple (right) herself was behind thedelay: She was dissatisfied with the 2003 tracks produced by JonBrion (the ones downloaders praised so highly), so she turned toproducer Mike Elizondo, who has worked with Dr. Dre, Eminem, and 50Cent, to reimagine her material.

Still, it's not hard to imagine where the conspiracy theory camefrom; artist-label battles are as old as the music industry, and youcan bet that if Beethoven had signed a record deal, he would havestomped away from it in a huff. Here are some recent examples.

Wilco: When the band finished "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" in 2001,Reprise refused to release it without major revisions. So Wilcobought the rights for a reported $50,000, released the album for freeon its website, then signed a deal with Nonesuch Records.

Aimee Mann: Interscope decided that "Bachelor No. 2" wasn'tcommercial enough and refused to put it out. Mann bought back themaster tapes and released the album in 2000 on her own label,SuperEgo. It did just fine, thanks.

Dave Matthews Band: In 2000 fans were buzzing about "TheLillywhite Sessions," a darkish album produced by Steve Lillywhite,but RCA worried there wasn't a single in the mix. Matthews relentedand released the commercial "Everyday" instead. What's a fan to dowhen the band sells out?

Brian Wilson: He co-wrote "Sweet Insanity" with his psychiatrist,Eugene Landy, but Sire Records shelved the album in 1991 after peoplestarted whispering about Landy's ethics. Of course, "Smile," famouslyshelved in 1967, was rerecorded and released last year, so there'shope.