I always assume I'll just handle the first wave of trouble, and a few months down the line (MANY months down the line in the case of my releases to date) someone will post them somewhere for people who don't do the mail thing.
I do enjoy sending them out, printing the labels, getting feedback on them and all that. I know that Deleted Magic has been downloaded thousands of times from myspleen, but I got almost no feedback from that, and certainly no sense that people were trying to pay my work back, which I do get from the mail, I get more feedback, more of a personal touch, whether I lose money or not (and I always lose a couple hundred dollars with the big mailings, bigtime). But I still prefer the mail way, I'm used to that and have fun with it, and I know it's the only way I myself would want to get the disc (I wouldn't download 4 gigs via torrent!) ... also I have a HUGE collection of discs and I'm really into copying things.
What I love about the myspleen stuff though is the feeling that soooooooooo many people are getting the disc for free, hopefully with relative ease. The Deleted Magic torrent still seems to be going after such a long time.
Also, with no limits on disc space it's pretty damn ideal for a dual layer release like Jedi - though I hope that people who can only burn single layer know how to shrink a disk down after downloading!
So, let's roll with both methods of distribution.
But please, yes, GET EMPIRE ON MYSPLEEN. I've been waiting for that for a while. =D Also Return of the Ewok. How 'bout Special Edition Hype too, maybe even the Auditions remix ....
There's a point that gets reached after about a month where it's clear that people aren't getting the discs from me anymore, and they need to really be pushed on torrents and the newsgroups to reach that other audience ... because I think it is a different audience, for snail mail, torrents and newsgroups, all different people rely on different means, and when it can get into the hands of slimy dirty bootleggers, there's also the convention crowd, and even the Ebay crowd, where people are getting scammed on prices, but it's reaching a different audience which is nice. When you've worked hard on these things you want to see them gradually reach all the different audiences.
I certainly consider snail mail the first front, as it would be my own choice, and I hear from a lot of people that they would never attempt a big torrent or newsgroup, couldn't get that to work. I know I've never downloaded anything that big via torrent, successfully. Heh. And there are so many dialup users ... you know. There will always be the need for snail versions.