I voted for cd & mp3s. There are SO many bands in the "metal" genre that I won't risk my 15-20 bucks on. In those instances, I'll dl some/all of the cd, and if I like it, I buy it (on cd) . USUALLY a track or 2 from a website or a myspace page doesn't do it for me. You have NO idea how many bands I've found out about due to MP3s, (Freak Kitchen is my #1 example), and how much lame stuff I've deleted, and been happy I DIDN'T spend my money on.
My thoughts are pretty close to Dustin's, I WANT hard copy. I WANT a physical cd. I also would rather purchase a SHN'ed or FLAC'ed .wav file over an MP3 any day of the week, I don't care how high the sample rate is. I'm also the same way with software. I don't want to buy a download, or reload from a recovery partition, I want PHYSICAL media. I have a lot of friends who are busting their asses to make a living in the music biz, some are doing well, and others are still struggling.
Solely downloading MP3s, and never purchasing anything is like walking into their home, and eating all their food & drinking all their beer!
It IS a "disposable" society, and if I can't take my cds & vinyl with me, they better at least bury it with me!
J-Dubya