adronus mentioned that his new track may be reticent1 of Richard Barbieri, than I was reading Barbieri's Wikipedia article and got reminded that most everyone in Japan re-formed to produce an album as Rain Tree Crow, which I keep on meaning to buy.Then I stupidly managed to find out somehow (I must've sneezed on the keyboard, or something) that it's available DRM-free on the iTunes store (thank you EMI) and now it's downloading, and my bank account is eight quid lighter. And I'm still in my dressing gown, finishing my first coffee of the day.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love record shops, and the ability to do actual physical browsing is super, and the staff are often very cool and friendly and helpful. But these days, when you already know what you want, it's just too easy to spend money before you've brushed your teeth in the morning.
1EDIT: See? Told you I was writing early in the morning. Excuse my malapromisms :)
I personally still prefer to buy the CD and then rip at 320kbit to ensure it is at what I want it to be. Plus if it all gets wiped then its physically there to redo. :)
Also, the other good thing about the DRM-free EMI music on iTunes is that it's 256kbps.
As for backups, well, I've mostly got CDs; I've only recently been buying entirely digitally. Given the choice, I think I'd rather have my entire music collection backed up both at home and on a server on another continent (as I currently do), than have the CDs and the digital versions all in the same house. Especially as the CDs take up such a stupid amount of space in a one-bedroom flat, compared to the 2.5" hard drive the music happily backs up to...
I tend to get stuff on itunes and then if I really like it I end up getting it on CD too plus I'm still buying stuff on second hand vinyl. Fortunately I have a three bedroom house with lots of storage space. The only format I've given up on is pre-recorded cassettes cos of the hiss and tapes wear out way before I want to stop playing them.
I tend to use real shops for vinyl and virtual ones for CDs.