Some time ago, I bought the latest Nine Inch Nails "album" called Ghosts I-IV. I bought it shortly after it was announced, but received the CD last month sometime.

I could have easily purchased the download-only version, or bittorrented the album since the Creative Commons license they've chosen to release it under makes that activity perfectly legal. However, I bought a physical copy because I haven't quite made the leap to purchasing digital music without a physical element. Seems kind of strange because I've bought software without a physical element to it.

I think the main difference between digital software and digital music is that the companies that sell digital software make it relatively easy to re-acquire the software if you delete all copies of it. Digital music retailers-even ones that don't sell their wares with DRM-make it difficult to re-acquire. At least if I have the physical CD, I can always re-rip the tracks.