In spite of Hurricane Sandy, I was planning to brave the storm to pick up a copy of Calvin Harris’ new album “18 Months.” I was anticipating this release for more than a year since “Bounce” was released in the UK last June.

It leaked this past Friday and I fell to temptation and downloaded it for an early listen.

I was impressed on how smooth it played that I had to add it to my physical collection of albums, even if it meant getting blown halfway across Towson just to buy it.

I don’t usually shell out cash if I want a CD but I will make exceptions in certain cases. If an album is exceptionally good to me, I will go out of my way and purchase a hard copy of it.

If it’s just OK, I can just download it illegally (which I do not condone) or buy the songs I want from iTunes.

Having a physical copy of an album is a completely different experience. First of all, the quality of CD is a lot better than the 256kb AAC file you get from iTunes and I enjoy hearing every detail in a song.

Second, I enjoy the feeling buying a CD gives me. You can kind of compare it to the feeling that you get when you were younger and you would be waiting for you parents to wake you up on Christmas day.

The feeling you get from having the album in your hands is far better than just simply downloading it or buying it online and watching percentages flash across your screen.

I can look at the Billboard albums chart and say to myself, I helped contribute to that artist’s chart position.

I also have a thing for browsing the album booklets.

I enjoy reading the prologue, the “thank you” letters, writing/production credits, and all that jazz.

There are perks of digital music, like its convenience and the space it saves to the alternative of CDs or vinyl.

Plus it just sucks if you only like a couple songs on the CD and you have to buy the entire thing. I say, to each his own. Which do you prefer?