Why Do I Need a Portable Music Player?

Music lovers like listening to their favorite tunes on the go. That meant transistor radios in the 1960s, Walkman cassette players and giant boomboxes in the 1980s and portable CD players a decade later. Now we're getting our music another way, listening to digital audio players, like the Apple iPod.

Sometimes called MP3 players, these gadgets hold large libraries of songs digitally. Even the smallest portable players hold hundreds of songs, and the largest devices can archive your entire music collection. Best of all, they fit in the palm of your hand. What's cool about these portable players is that they get their songs from your computer. You start by ripping songs from a CD or downloading music from the Internet, and then you transfer that digital music from your PC to the portable audio player. You can even use your PC to organize the player's songs into your own playlists.

No Skips

If you're used to a portable CD player, you know that it's prone to skip when jarred. That's one reason you probably don't want to listen to a CD player when you're jogging. When you bounce up and down, it bounces up and down, too, and your songs start skipping all over the place.

You'll get a lot less skipping with a new portable music player. While some large-capacity players, like the big Apple iPod, use miniature hard discs for storage (and hard discs can skip, but not as bad as CD players), smaller players store all their music on flash memory chips. Flash memory has no moving parts and nothing to skip. So if you like to listen to music when running or exercising, get a flash memory music player and listen without any interruption.

It's Small

Even today's largest-capacity portable music players are small enough to hold in the palm of your hand. The smallest players, however, fit in your pocket. Just look at the iPod Shuffle or most low-priced flash memory players, and you'll see a gizmo that looks pretty much like a pack of chewing gum. Put it in your pocket, strap it to your wrist, take it pretty much anywhere -- it makes your old portable CD player or Walkman look positively gigantic.

It's Large

As small as today's portable music players are, they hold an extremely large amount of music. The smallest flash memory players can hold 50 or so songs, which is enough to hold a half-dozen or so CDs. The largest hard drive-based players, like the 60GB iPod or Creative Zen Vision M, can hold up to 15,000 songs, which is more than most people have in their entire CD collection.

Make Your Own Kind of Music

Another advantage to today's portable music players is that you can program them to play back your own personalized music mix, in the form of playlists. You're not limited to playing a single CD from start to finish; you can put together personalized lists to suit your every mood. Create one music mix for your drive to work, another mix for your drive home and another to listen to on weekends. It's as simple as starting up a music player program on your personal computer and then dragging and dropping specific songs into a list. You then transfer the playlist to your portable device.

Lots of Options

Whether you own a big Apple iPod or a small Creative Zen Micro, you're not limited to listening to music solely through a pair of earbuds. There are all sorts of accessories you can buy that let you extend the way you use your portable music player. You can add a pair of powered external speakers for listening in a big room, an auto adapter for listening in your car, colorful cases and a variety of other add-ons and accessories. You can even use your portable music player to drive your home audio system -- and serve as your digital music warehouse.

More Than Music

Portable music players aren't just for playing digital music. Some players include FM radios, digital voice recorders and color screens that let you store and view your favorite photos on the go. And some double as portable video players; you can download your favorite TV shows and music videos and watch them when you're on the go.

Michael Miller is a writer and commentator on technology and digital lifestyle topics.