Wow, the reverse is true for me. I find that lately I listen to a CD before buying it. Also because I'm lazy, go figure.
I managed to listen to the last
Charlatans album well before I found it available locally for instance (doesn't help that they don't have a NA record deal).
It's also easier to organize things on the empeg than with physical media. You don't want to see the mess of CDs I have stacked all over the place, not to mention my two large CD cabinets with discs all out of order (that I haven't sorted since moving last year).
Bruno