I was reading something last month or so from some technology writer (Kevin Kelly?) about music in an age where it can be (more or less) obtained for free fairly easily (just need to know where to look). The point (for musicians) was that you need to sell things which can not be copied. He goes on to talk about what this means which I won't repeat (found the article here:
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php).
If I think about Kevin Kelly's points - they all absolutely influence the way I buy music now - paying for immediacy (the first to have/know about a certain record); authenticity (which is something that works in fairly subtle ways - who knows what authenticity sounds like, though I know for sure when something isn't); patronage (buying records from certain bands/labels because it is easy - especially with paypal - and because sometimes you just want to give support to certain things).
Another thing that this means for me is that I have completely abandoned most of my CD's, purchasing only vinyl and knowing that if I can't find Mp3's, I can rip them myself. I also spend way more money on records than I ever did before, mostly because of blogs and message boards as referral networks always putting awesome things under my nose (and having no willpower whatsoever).