The Common Sense Investor

Consumer How-to: MP3 Players and Purchasing Music Online

So you’ve got a music collection. An MP3 player will allow to you play your songs in the car, at work, at home and while working out ““ but not before you spend a hundred dollars or more for the unit and its accessories. In keeping with the “shop smarter” mantra, ask yourself the following ‘common sense consumer’ questions before making your purchase.

1. If I buy an MP3 player, will I use it?

If you want to listen to music while working around the house, waiting in traffic or traveling - or if you want a tune to jog to ““ you can make good use of your purchase. If you have a couple songs you enjoy, use your PC or burn a CD to listen to.

2. If I buy an MP3 player, how much memory do I want?

Once you have a player, you’ll want to take all of your favorite songs on CD and download them to your player. This usually means you’ll need enough space for 30-100 songs. Teenagers often buy 200+ songs (suggested fix for parents: buy gift cards for your kids instead of setting up a credit card. Some music stores, such as Apple’s iTunes, even let parents restrict kids’ spending). Two gigabytes will give you room for 500 songs and will suffice for the average user.

3. Should I order a player with a hard drive or with another type of memory?

Please order an MP3 player with a true hard drive. “Flash” memory or any other type of lower-than-hard-drive-quality memory often malfunctions, causing your songs to be erased. Until manufacturers can perfect such memory technology, a hard disk-based MP3 player is the way to go.

If you decide that you can get enough use of an MP3 player to make buying one purchase worthwhile, do so online and enjoy the consumer-side benefits of free enterprise: heavy competition by companies like Apple, Dell and Digital River ““ all major MP3-player makers, and competition by the retailers that distribute their products. Stores like www.newegg.com offer heavy discounts, cheap shipping and customer reviews. The local mall or electronics store will almost always have prices that exceed those of online retailers.

Once it’s time to fill your player with music, consider your options: fixed-rate stores like iTunes or monthly-rate stores like Napster. Be wary of the terms and conditions of monthly-rate stores: when you cancel, all of your music may become inactive, and you may not be able to use your player because you may be required to check it in to the service every month or so to let the service know you’re still registered. Monthly-rate stores can lock in customers via the “oh man, if I drop this service, all of my music and my playlists will be gone!” fear. Fixed-rate stores are my personal preference because their limited-use drawbacks don’t apply to me: I’m not burning my purchases to more than X CD’s or using them on more than X computers. “X” is typically around five.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, the Apple iPod is the best MP3 player out there ““ not to mention that you can watch crystal-clear TV shows, videos and view your pictures with ease in nearly any lighting environment. If you’re the more frugal type, or if you have no need to store hundreds of songs, I recommend purchasing a memory-key-sized music player from a company like Digital River (the principle here is avoiding the splurge when you don’t need something expensive). Nomatter the brand, remember to back up your music. Happy listening!