<p>Since you are the Aunt and want the gift to have some meaning I would go with the CD’s. Even at 13 she will know how to load them on her computer and put them on her IPOD.
ITunes cards and other gift cards are what she will get from her friends.</p>
<p>I suggest a gift certificate for Amazon.com. I now use their MP3 download services instead of iTunes. The songs are often cheaper, and their format is compatible with iPods. I have no problem downloading and playing their songs on my iPod.</p>
<p>Very few music CDs are copy-protected, because people hated them so much. If you really want to give her specific music, especially classical music, the way to go is CDs. It’s a snap to rip them to the computer and then the iPod.
One note: the suggestion to buy the music yourself online, and then burn it to a CD and give the CD to her is, technically, illegal.</p>
<p>And I disagree that 13 year olds don’t like personalized gifts. My d’s favorite gifts for her bat mitzvah were a stereo (pre-iPod days - more than 5 years ago!) and a gift certificate for 2 private lessons at her dance studio. The “cold, hard cash” gifts? She doesn’t remember who gave what or what she bought with the money we allowed her to spend; most of it went into her college savings.</p>
<p>Keep up with your initial idea, p3t!</p>
<p>Buy the CDs. Easily loaded to ipod via ipod software. You just put the cd in your cd drive and tell itunes to import the music. It is soooo easy.</p>
<p>Personally, iturnes are overpriced. You can buy the entire cd and download only those tunes you want, and still have the cd to play the “old fashioned way” on your home stereo or in the car.</p>
<p>iTunes provides a service whereby you can regularly send your niece a credit to her iTunes account. The nice thing about this type of gift is that new music is released often, and this provides a continual amount to spend. I did this for my D, adding a $10 credit to her account each month. It’s relatively painless, and she gets to enjoy my “gift” over and over again.</p>
<p>Similarly I purchase (for $9.95 a month) Netflix for my grandmother, who loves movies, but just doesn’t get out as much as she used to (she’s 90). For under $10 a month I can be a sport.</p>
<p>Hunt, it is my understanding that songs purchased on iTunes come coded with a limited number of legal re-copies (I think it’s 3 or 5?) So paying for the music on iTunes, burning it to a CD and giving it to her is not illegal. Making 20 copies of the CD and selling them would be illegal though - or even making a dozen copies to hand out. But a single copy of a song the OP paid for, given as a gift, I believe that would be legal.</p>
<p>^You can authorize 5 computers (besides your own) to play your purchased music. For instance, my sister, my mom, and three of my best friends all get mine. :)</p>
<p>paying 3 – since I’m an ipod newbie myself, I asked my S. What I said in post # 3 is correct. BUT, he said you can also “gift” music from the itunes store. So, you can select the music you want for your niece, pay for it, and send it to her so she can load it onto her ipod. Voila – the best of both worlds!</p>
<p>I’m reading all and learning, appreciating all the ideas, which might apply in many gift situations. </p>
<p>So far I’m liking CBBBlinker’s suggestion above IF I can find good selections in the itunes store. I’ve never been to an itunes store, and presume it doesn’t matter how I dress to go shop there ;)</p>
<p>Fallback if I don’t like the itunes store is to purchased boxed CD’s that don’t limit her from downloading (all news to me). But now I know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it, if I end up presenting her with a boxed set of CD’s. </p>
<p>Chedva’s got it right that I want to maintain personal thought-control (j/k) over the musical selections. Interestingly, I asked a group of 7th graders whom I teach Hebrew and THEY all said “We like itunes cards from each other” so the posters above are right that they are popular. Likely her some of her friends will do itune gift cards for her. It’s amazing how fast you can lose touch with the middle school set.</p>
<p>So I’m coming up with a good variation on what the friends will do and yet have it a recognizable “auntie” gift. She lives far away, sad to say, but I can also speak with my brother about possible local concert tickets in her town, too.</p>
<p>The poster who suggested the $l0. per month gift in itunes caused me to smile. I love that idea as an ongoing kind of gift in different situations (like my Mom, as you gift yours this way). OTOH, I don’t want to start a precedent that might grow into expectations for “auntie” contributions to her college tuition 
Oh, noes!</p>
<p>Thanks for updating my knowledge of music tech, everyone.</p>
<p>And I’m very exciting that her day is coming around the bend.</p>
<p>I second the idea of gifting music on iTunes; that’s exactly what I was going to suggest. That way you can choose exactly what music you want. You can gift individual songs/albums, or you can create a custom playlist of music from different artists/albums that you can also gift. It is the best of both worlds–you pick the music, and it should be very simple for her to put the music right on her iPod (I’d hope it would be easy, anyway, I’ve never actually tried it).</p>
<p>If you want to learn more about it, go to the iTunes store, then click a link on the right side that says “Buy iTunes Gifts,” and then to the third option down: “Give Specific Music, TV Shows, and Movies.”</p>
<p>I never realized that you could create playlists or give specific music; I just assumed that a gift card was a gift card. Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>kat - excellent idea…and actually something that can be done in combination. That is…create a sentimental gift of specially selected music and also give an allowance for her to select her own music. </p>
<p>Re: the ‘cold hard cash’…my kids remember those gifts very well because their ‘old-fashioned’ mother requires them to hand write those dreaded thank you notes and put them in snail mail. (Email doesn’t count in our family.) lol!</p>
<p>Can you give a one-time credit to an i-tunes account? Apple used to let you send a certificate via e-mail to the recipient the way Amazon does. I loved that feature as it was the perfect gift for young people and didn’t involve going to get the card but they have discontinued that service. I assume the credit is a different way to do the same thing but I imagine you have to spill the beans and get someone’s account number which would be weird.</p>
<p>ldmom, my d also had to do the hand-written thank you cards, and did every one of them. She still doesn’t remember who gave her how much!</p>
<p>chedva - I was only speaking my own children, and making the larger point not all forget those who give gifts of money. Mine probably don’t remember the amount either, but they remember those who thought of them at a special time in their lives. </p>
<p>And we’ve taught them to give a gift without worrying about thanks or recognition. (Something they like to throw in my face when they are on the receiving end and faced with writing those pesky thank you notes…lol!)</p>
<p>What kind of selection of classical music does iTunes have?</p>