• The Financial Times continued its critical coverage of EMI owner Terra Firma today with a report that Terra Firma chief executive Guy Hands sent letters to the RIAA and IFPI that threatened to cut off EMI's funding to the trade groups. Hands considers the $25 million per year it gives to both bodies another example of wasteful spending. As the article points out, if EMI stopped paying the IFPI and RIAA, it would have to make do either lobbying for itself and tracking down both physical and digital pirates on its own dime, or do away with all three activities. Some may look at this as a sign that Hands does not approve of the activities the RIAA and IFPI undertake on EMI's behalf, but it could be nothing more the latest result of cost-cutting brainstorming sessions. (Financial Times)

• C3 Presents, the company behind Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza, will partner with UK company Festival Republic (Live Nation) to launch the Vineland Music Festival. The site, in Vineland, New Jersey, is between Philadelphia and Atlantic City. The festival, to be held August 8-10, will be a camping festival like Bonnaroo. (Billboard.biz)

• I learned something in this good post about file-sharing and indie labels: Gold Standard Laboratories shut its doors a few weeks ago. "Part-owner and main man Sonny Kay ran the label either from a dirty office in LA or from internet cafes and phone boots across the world while being on tour with his own screamo punk bands. Addressing in an email what forced him to shut down he said: 'Filesharing was never much of a problem until everyone got the ipod, then the sales disappeared overnight.' And this comes from a label which is, I mean was, looked upon as the Warp of punk rock – releasing extreme punk and experimental music - NOT a label that produce radio hits." (Vegard Waske)

• Mark Piibe, formerly the SVP and head of content at MusicGremlin, has been hired as EMI's SVP of digital business affairs. (Silicon Valley Insider)

• A discussion of breakage at eMusic. "The current payout rate of 30.5 cents a track actually exceeds what I'm paying per track via my $9.99 for 40 downloads subscription (the old rate) and approaches what newer subscribers ($9.99 for 30 downloads) are paying for each track. (And the per-track rate actually goes much lower with booster packs and bigger subscription plans!) Using the 'half the subscription revenue goes to labels' formula (and ignoring any deducted costs), it seems likely that the zero-breakage per-song payout rate would be somewhere around 12 to 17 cents. The fact that it's twice that amount indicates just how much breakage is occurring each month." Said an anonymous commenter, "Average breakage at eMusic is right around 50%." (Digital Audio Insider)

• Warner Music Group formed a partnership with the family of Frank Sinatra to "integrate content, rights management and the preservation of the legendary entertainer's inspirational personality and prodigious body of work under a single entity." Frank Sinatra Enterprises will manage all things Sinatra and handle licensing of his name and likeness. (Press release)

• The Orchard has inked a distribution deal with historic Vee-Jay Records. (Press release)