The Digital Music Revolution

MP3 players feature a variety of shapes, sizes, features, and designs and they all have unique benefits - hopefully we'll help you wade through some of the confusion.

Types of players

The type of player you'll want will depend on a few factors:

• How much music you want to carry with you
• What you'll be doing while listening to music
• Size and design considerations

Hard-drive Players

If you're looking for a player that can hold all your music, this is your choice. Song space on these players ranges from 20GB to 60GB - the bigger the hard-drive space, the more songs you can carry with you.

Just remember that with that space comes a more bulky player that won't be ideal for exercising. These models are perfect for sitting them on a desk or long trips or commutes.

Our Recommendations:

The Apple iPod is the reigning champion in the hard-drive class. The 20GB version offers enough space for about 5,600 songs or nearly 400 CDs. That's more than enough for most people. It'll run you just under $300.

But if you still need more space, the iPod comes in 40GB and 60GB versions as well, but be prepared for the price to jump as you go up. See our Apple iPod Store for more choices.

There are few other hard-drive players that can compete with Apple's design and ease of use - not to mention the wonderfully addicting iTunes music service where you can buy individual songs of an albut or from lists of songs that inspired your favorite artists. The service comes with Apple's free iTunes music player software that's available even if you don't have an iPod.

There are a few other players in the 20GB to 30GB range, and if you're price conscious you'll find them a little cheaper than the iPod.

• The Creative Zen Touch (20GB) is slightly bigger than the iPod but boasts double the battery life - 24 hours. It runs about $240. The 40GB version comes in around $315, a great value for a song capacity around 11,000.
• The JetAudio iAudio M3 (20GB) is slimmer than the iPod and offers some more features like an FM tuner and voice recorder included. But, it doesn't have a screen.

Micro Drives

These players are much smaller than the full hard-drive types but still offer quite a bit of space - ranging from 1GB to 6GB. They're much more suited to exercise than they're bulkier cousins.

• Apple recently announced the release of the 6GB iPod Mini for the same price as the old 4GB models and upped the battery life to 18 hours and comes in your choice of Silver, Blue, Green, or Pink. And the newer models mean the 4GB Minis will be about $50 cheaper. [iPod Store]
• The Creative Zen Micro comes in 5GB or 6GB models with prices comparable to the iPod Mini, but it has a few more features like an FM tuner and voice recorder and is available in 10 colors.
• With a simple interface and the longest battery life (20 hours) of any micro player, the Rio Carbon 5GB is a strong contender.

Flash Players

Instead of a hard-drive, these models store songs on Flash memory drives. These rugged, skip-free players are perfect for storing a few hours of music for exercising or jogging.

• JetAudio iAudio U2
• IRiver iFP-790
• Samsung YEPP
• Apple iPod Shuffle

Filling your player

You'll want to be sure and get some new music for your new player as well. If you're giving the player, a gift certificate to one of these music stores is an ideal add-on.

• iTunes $15 Prepaid Card

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