A few more thoughts on this topic:

If eMusic is such a losing proposition, why do 13,000 labels offer their
music there?  

Jaimie, how can you conclude that eMusic wouldn't work for you without
giving it a try?  You may be surprised at the volume you achieve.
You'll definitely get more people buying/listening than you would
otherwise.  And don't forget that if the quality is there, you've got a
larger base of listeners (mostly passionate music fans, mind you) from
which positive word of mouth can spread. (In fact, if you do give it a
try, you have at least one guaranteed buyer right here. I promise to
download the first album you put on there and extol its virtues here if
I like it.  How's that for an incentive!:)

And forgive me if this is an ignorant question, but why don't other
indie retailers (Not Lame, Insound, Parasol, etc) offer download
services to compete with eMusic?  The writing is on the wall that
digital delivery is the future.  Seems to me that specialized retailers
might be able to transfer their brand names and some of their other
strengths to this new paradigm.  For example, generally speaking, people
have been willing to pay a premium to Not Lame because of its expertise
in all things pop and its ability to offer a great selection of the
genre in one place.  Why can't this be replicated in the download world?
Personally, I'd be willing to pay more than the $10/40 songs/month that
I pay to eMusic if Not Lame offered a download service that had the same
selection as its CD store.  Again, I'd pay the premium for the expertise
and specialization.  The artist wins because my willingness to pay a
premium translates into more money for them than they'd get through
eMusic.  Not Lame wins because the prospect of better returns would
likely bring in artists that are currently eMusic holdouts, creating a
point of differentiation.  So when does the service launch, Bruce?

Gary B