Im totally a netlabel customer, love them and have done for a long time. I see net labels as part quality filter and part curators. If you want prog awesomeness, check out ubik, if you want crazy space weirdness then kitten rock,
As a customer
1) What, if any, influence does a label has on your purchasing habits?
A lot, pretty much all the music I listen to in the last 6 or 7 years is from a net label. Originally when I started getting into chipmusic candymind (where I found goto80 and psilodump) and monotonik (where I found virt and pink/gjier) had just closed down, retinascan (where I found Stu, Jellica and 8gb) was big for physical releases and pause (where I found alex mauer, , joshmorse, disasterpeace and norrin radd), 8bitpeoples (where I found yerzmyey, linde, random and bit shifter and mr spastic and IAYD) literally changed my life, see blip Tokyo/squaresounds. I think Ubiktune (where I found C-jeff, karfobos and fatal snipe) were just starting up. Other favorites were DWD, Kitternrock and Da heard it. Also big fan of hexawe, bleepstreet and telefuture. Also I have bought a load of cheapbeats albums
2) Do you prefer to buy directly from an artist, or through a label?
No preference but my chances of finding you if you are on a net label / were on a net label are far far higher.
3) What are you top three favorite labels and why?
Couldn't choose 3 I love to many, Recently basebit records, dataairlines and cheapbeats have been getting most of my iphones play time.
4) What would you consider a appropriate price range for chiptune albums?
Im reluctant to pay more than about 7 bucks for digital.
5) Does the storefront (bandcamp, custom website, etc) influence your purchases?
Unlikely to buy if not on bandcamp, all my netlabel stuff is nicely collected there and I don't want to have to re register all my information for just one purchase.
6) Your opinion on physical copies? (cd, tape, vinyl, etc)
Don't personally buy them, I am all digital for books, music and movies (oddly not for comics though)
7) Your opinion on merch? (tshirts, stickers, garter belts, et)
Love it, I have a drawer full of shirts and a gig box covered in stickers.
Downloading now.