Project leads that have their heads screwed on straight will accumulate an audio team leader early in the development process, in fact, this is becoming a popular and efficient method of integration and creative development. Of course, if someone is just trying to collect people and hope a game will fall out of it, nothing will happen. But, I view a team that is looking for audio input and participation from the start as having the promise of delivering more than just "plunk in the sounds" attitudes. Look at the testimonies of some of the more successful audio personalities, most will attest to this.
Of course, in my own experience(as the audio lead on an independent product) only the audio lead should be brought in early. If you accumulate your entire audio team and keep them on their toes while the game is still being conceptualized, they will become restless and drop out, but there needs to be a viewpoint on the music and sound from the start.

I''ll go along with that to a degree. But I still think musicians brought in early will spend most of there time waiting for the programming to catch up. If they don''t mind waiting, and spending there time working with the designer on how the music will work, then more power to them. You could get a better product, plus since musicians tend to be creative people the could probably enhance the design.

But I still think most people will probably get frustrated at the fact that the music they create can''t be used for a VERY LONG TIME. Programming a game takes a very long time (something many indie project leaders don''t understand). If a musician is willing to work with a group for over a year to create a total of 15 minutes of music, then sweet.

Just my limited experience, I''ve just seen artists and musicians get frustrated with the waiting on projects I''ve worked on. And I completely understand why they were frustrated. And for those artists who would get frustrated, I''d say wait til the project really has something to show before you join.