When I was growing up, tapes were the thing. CDs eventually came around, but you couldn't do everything with a CD. You couldn't make copies, and you couldn't make mixes either. Even when CDR's came out, they were pretty limited. You really need a tape player for many things. Nowadays, however, MP3 media players are where it is at. They combine the high-quality digital sound of a CD with the ability to record of a tape. If you don't have an MP3 media player, you are probably missing out. You can't really be a music fan without one.

If you use a Windows PC, Windows media player MP3 is probably the center of your musical universe. More and more, people don't even keep CD collections. They simply burn their CDs onto their computers. That way, they can listen to them, trade them, play them for friends, and make mixes on them. If you don't have an MP3 media player, however, you can't do anything with any of these mixes. You can listen to them at home, of course, but that is about it. Without MP3 media players, it is impossible to take your music on the road with you.

Unfortunately, figuring out which portable media players to use can be a little bit difficult. Not all of them work as MP3 media players. You see, there are a variety of competing digital musical formats. MP3 media players are fine if you use MP3, but if you use other kinds of digital encoding, they won't work for you. Ipods for example have their own format. Ideally, you should get a media player that is compatible with all of the different digital formats. That way, you can listen to your music and your friends music as well.

A lot of people are dedicated fans of the Apple media player. To me, it doesn't really make sense. I think that the biggest thing that Apple iPod has going for it is an aesthetically pleasing design and great marketing. The iPod isn't really any better than most of the MP3 media players out there. As a matter of fact, some of them have a greater degree of compatibility than it does. The only difference is that everyone is using iPods nowadays, so there is that peer pressure to get one. Don't give into it. You should do a lot of research before you pick out which MP3 player you want.