Thanks, everybody, for the input so far. I definitely take these suggestions seriously.
I'll have more to add here soon, possibly to inspire or trigger additional discussion. Some quick notes:
First, there's no risk of Hypnos becoming a "netlabel" or switching to downloads-only or CDR-only any time soon. I still feel the proper CD format is a beautiful way to release music, particular in the new digipaks we've been doing. One change we'll probably make is to press editions of 500 rather than 1,000, except with artists like Robert Rich where the edition of 1,000 makes sense. We don't mind waiting a decade or so to sell off most of a CD batch, but I don't want to have a garage full of stuff when Lena and I are old and retired! Time to start doing slightly smaller quantities. Batches of 300 might even become our default at some point.
We'll likely start being more aggressive about cutting prices on CDs that have been out for several years. I'd like to hear input from people on whether they feel such price reductions make a difference -- in other words, if a given CD isn't worth buying for $12.99, does it become more appealing at $9.99 or $7.99 or eventually even $5.99, or is it a matter of the music being "worth having" or "not worth having" and the lower price not really convincing you to buy something you didn't want in the first place?
As for downloads, we do intend to have a more comprehensive solution for the digital availability of our music. That's been something I've worked on in fits and starts over the past few years, and though I made some good progress on that in the first half of 2012, I didn't get it quite ready for prime time. Then my "day job" schedule changed and I had less time to work on it. I still intend to block off some time in the new year to address this again. Most of the technical hurdles were solved, and I just have to re-address payment gateway issues, then do some testing. Currently my plan is to take a block of vacation in early 2013, and lock myself in the Hypnos studio and hammer away at this until the new store is ready to go.
I also like chris23's idea about doing a combined book/music release. This is actually something I've considered in the past. A surprising number of people who are into "weird" fiction, horror, dark fantasy, science fiction and the like are also into ambient and electronic music. I love the idea of commissioning a novella from an interesting writer and doing a special edition hardcover along with a "soundtrack" CD. Then after that limited edition, the writer could publish the novella elsewhere, separately, and the CD could be purchased in ordinary packaging, also separately. Something to think about. I've been secretly studying up on book design as I plan for something like this.
As I said, I'll have more to add to this topic soon. Thanks again, everybody, for caring enough to offer input.