How To Listen To Your Downloadable Music

So which of these options is the best?

Good question!

Unfortunately, it's not a question of which option is best. More a question of which way of listening to downloadable music suits your individual circumstances best.

You see, there are pros and cons to each option.

My intention here is to discuss them at some length with you, in the hope you'll be able to make your own decisions on the way you want to go once you've found out a little more about the possibilities.

Firstly...

Free MP3 Players

The benefit of using free MP3 players is that, well, they're free!

You can simply download a free MP3 player within the next 5 or 10 minutes, get a free month's subscription to my favourite of the music download sites and be listening to tracks within moments on your PC.

The main issue here is needing your PC on to listen to your downloadable music.

Also, do you have decent speakers on your PC to bring out a good sound quality or are they going to rattle and crackle away till you can't take any more? Or do you intend to listen to your music on headphones?

I personally use a free MP3 player on my PC, as I spend much of my time on it, building website like this one as a hobby. Sitting here, bopping away late into the night with my headphones on, creating logos, articles and color schemes I like. I wouldn't want to keep the neighbours up with my loud music.

And I can then download a few new tunes whenever I feel like it to keep me inspired and interested in my work - after all variety is the spice of life!

But, of course, I don't use this method solely. I like to be able to take my music with me everywhere - to friend's, to work, in the car and so on.

I also like my music LOUD so I also use other methods of listening to my downloadable music...

MP3 portable players work just like walkmans.

Small, plastic, battery-powered pieces of technology allow you to download music onto the player to take your music with you wherever you go.

Increasingly reasonably priced, these pieces of technology are growing in popularity due to their "go anywhere" ability.

One can think of essentially 2 different types of portable MP3 players for your downloadable music.

The first of these are the "solid-state" MP3 players. What this means is that they contain no moving parts and no removeable memory media.

You're limited to how much downloadable music you can put onto these players, often only an hour or so in total, but they tend to be sturdy, reasonably priced and small enough to easily fit in a pocket or handbag.

The other type of player involves having memory media (disks, memory sticks etc.) that you can change, giving you far more options. These can have huge memories - hours and hours of tracks - but are generally much larger and more expensive as a result.

To read more detailed information on the options open to you read our dedicated mp3 portable players guide.

This is by far my favourite way of listening to downloadable music.

Yes, it takes more time than just downloading onto your PC, but the cost of saving (or "burning") MP3s onto CDs is very similar to that of getting a portable MP3 player.

You then have many benefits.

Firstly, your favourite tracks are saved for evermore safely and securely on CDs.

Secondly you can listen to your CDs just about anywhere you desire. You can listen to them in the car, on your home stereo (a real bonus for people like me who love loud music!) or if you're on the go, on a personal CD player.

The options are endless and I think the flexibility creating your own CDs gives you makes this the best all round option.

You can of course get software to create and print out your own stickers to go on your CDs, create your own playlists of your favourite tunes and so on.

To read about exactly how to create your own CDs from the downloadable music on your PC visit our free CD recording guide here.

And don't forget to sign up for my free Music Download Sites newsletter in which I cover in much more depth recording music onto CDs, mp3 portable players reviews and plenty of advice on free mp3 players. To sign up for free, simply fill in the following simple form: