I wrote a response to Mr. Doctorow's post, incorporating ideas about the effective deployment of eBooks - check it out at http://www.echobloom.com/blog/?p=26 .

Successful in both music and method imo - and one of the best side benefits of this technique is that by moving beyond the traditional brick and mortar music environment, they've sidestepped the time constraints of the traditional delivery mechanism (the months-long lag time between physical production, shipping, etc.).

It's a rapid development environment of sorts for music. You can finish a product, and move it immediately. Brilliant.