The NYT has a short piece about Rhino Entertainment’s plan to use an online-only selling strategy for material with niche appeal:

The decision to also put out an online-only album, “Lunafied,” which includes Luna’s versions of songs by the Velvet Underground, the Talking Heads and others that were originally recorded for soundtracks or as bonus songs, illustrates the way that Web outlets can generate sales for interesting albums considered too obscure to win shelf space at regular retail outlets. Without the costs associated with printing and shipping CD’s, such online-only releases need not sell many copies to make a profit.