I got into mp3's in early 1998, soon after winamp had launched. At first I wasn't impressed but was won over after starting to encode my own mp3s and make a small music collection. Even at mp3.com you could just download any song you wanted.
The encoders back then really sucked, so mp3's have improved quite a bit. I even have some I encoded in 2000 that don't sound so perky compared to today. A couple years ago I bothered to get an mp3 player (not an ipod), since my combined mp3 collection across three computers was about 40 gigs. Since then I've been listening to them more, but I still will always prefer and buy CDs over mp3s.