You make a good point, at one time, you went in to your record shop and they put the record on the turntable and you could hear as much as you liked. At HMV in Oxford Street, they handed you the LP and you went away to the booth and listened to what you needed to, to make up your mind.

If you don't download, you are now reliant on two things:
Clips on Amazon, which often gives you little idea of the whole.

A track heard on the radio with the enthusiastic say so of the DJ: Often he/she has picked the one track that shines out, and I've largely given up buying on this basis, as I get home with the CD and find the whole thing to be missable - I find Bob Harris particularly guilty in this light, every album is super, whizz-bang, fantastic.

I can't find the thread now, but I posted the following, part of a reply I made to a press article on CD/MP3 piracy, the other week:

"MP3 users do use this technology considerably to make better use of the CD collections that they have legitimately paid for: At any one time, the MP3 player in my car, which is identical in size to a car radio, contains my entire collection of talking books and all my favourite music, amounting to a total of 300 hours. In my house my music collection of around 1200cd's, by use of this digital technology, can be heard in every designated room, without an extensive outlay. These technologies, and particularly responsibly managed internet sites, therefore encourage wider listening and publicity for music, both new and old, without expensive marketing.

I have no truck with CD copying, but MP3 use can be for the benefit of all, if only the music industry realised that; It's there, they can't stop it, so they might as well learn how to live with it, again for the benefit of all, instead of this lock them up and throw away the key approach!"