eMusic, the world's largest retailer of independent music and the world's second-largest digital music service after iTunes, today announced that President and Chief Executive Officer David Pakman will depart the company. Pakman will become a partner at a premier venture capital firm.

By Jefferson Graham LOS ANGELES -- The smash success of Apple's iPod is paying huge dividends for a less-well-known music industry player, online retailer eMusic.

By ALEX VEIGALOS ANGELES (AP) -- Nearly a year since it was sold by Vivendi Universal (V) to private investors, online retailer eMusic has undergone a facelift that includes a panel of music critics to help users comb its trove of independent music.The revamped service, scheduled to debut Wednesday, is the latest evolution for the pioneering retailer, the first to sell digital music files online in the late 1990s.EMusic eschews copy protection technology as consumer-unfriendly, and caters to people whose tastes are largely ignored by mainstream music retailers."We're going after the minority of the market who doesn't want to wade through Britney Spears or OutKast," said David Pakman, eMusic's chief operating officer.The major online music retailers, such as Napster, MusicNet and market-leader iTunes Music Store, sell tunes by mostly major label acts.The eMusic revamp has been in the works for the better part of a year, since the company was acquired from Vivendi by New York-based Dimen