<p>S2 is turning 11, and he loves music - all kinds of music. His favorite is jazz - Al Hirt, Dave Brubeck, some obscure musicians I haven’t heard of - but he also likes classical and 60’s rock. He wants to be able to buy music, and I am not well versed in the latest options. Should we get him an Ipod? An MP3 player? Itunes? </p>
<p>All advice greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I have a $20 2 GB MP3 player. It is for audio only (can’t watch video). It uses a AAA battery so you don’t need to plug it in to recharge (I HATE the idea that all IPODs use lithium batteries)</p>
<p>There is LOTS of FREE (and NOT illegal to Download) music and other audio on the web</p>
<p>[Internet</a> Archive: Free Downloads: Audio Archive](<a href=“http://www.archive.org/details/audio]Internet”>Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine)</p>
<p>There is so much here. I would NEVER pay $1 per download.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.classiccat.net/[/url]”>http://www.classiccat.net/</a></p>
<p>Go with itunes/iPod. It is simply the way to go and what all his friends are going to have.</p>
<p>Definitely an iPod. Head to an Apple store and enjoy. iTunes is the online music store from where you buy music (and movies, and TV shows). You might as well get an iPod that has video capabilities; don’t bother with the iPod shuffle, because that’s only good for running (IMO).</p>
<p>IPod Nano. Be aware that when you load itunes it puts a bunch of cr*p on your computer that you won’t want and can occasionally screw up some other programs. You have some computer savvy people in your household, so you can unload the stuff you don’t want or “just say no” to some of it.</p>
<p>Get him an iPod Nano and a gift certificate to iTunes. If you have a Mac, iTunes is probably already on there.</p>
<p>While you’re at it, search for posts by Epistrophy and get the link to his music blog. It features daily posts with short clips of jazz, blues and other types of music, accompanied by brief tidbits of info. If you’ve noticed Epistrophy’s particularly intelligent and well-researched posts on CC – his blog is more of the same. New Orleans street musicians, a Cuban father and son separated by politics but performing a duet…really interesting and entertaining stuff.</p>
<p>Have to agree that some form of iPod is what everyone else will have, and iTunes is fun for music and other stuff. If you’re concerned about spending a lot of money on a small, very lose-able item for an 11-year-old, there’s a great resale market for electronics on eBay.</p>
<p>you can get a refurbished ipod online through the apple store-
FOr the family I would get a turntable that can play your old albums and make them into Mp3s.
( some musicians are even still making vinyl records!)</p>
<p>Go with an ipod.
I got a refurbished nano off Amazon and it’s worked beautifully. Nanos are great cause they’re small but still fit lots of music.<br>
If he already has CDs, he can load them up on the ipod.
Itunes are great…a bit addictive…but fun. I like it cause I can choose individual songs rather than whole albums. Really haven’t spent much though since I had lots of CDs from before.<br>
We also got ipod speakers for the kitchen so I don’t have to be antisocial all the time with those earbuds. And we stream it through our stereo with a special contraption my husband got. Great for parties!</p>
<p>I just got an iPod Touch, which is larger (and more $) than an iPod Nano. A feature I really like (maybe it’s on the Nano as well?) is called Genius. You select a song, then it goes through songs on the IPod and puts together a playlist based on it. It works pretty well. Unlike the shuffle, which can put together a rather odd mix (especially if your iPod, like mine, has lots of genres), the genius stays within the genre.</p>
<p>FYI the itunes store, while a fairly exhaustive library, doesn’t have everything. I was looking for one particular doo-wop tune last week which itunes didn’t have. I’d bet some of the obscure jazz cuts would not be available too…</p>
<p>there is a lot the itunes store doesn’t have- however- they will take requests- and there are other places to get music- you can play music on your ipod that wasn’t purchased through itunes</p>
<p>There are newsgroups on usenet for old jazz recordings, including live ones. </p>
<p>An ipod is the way to go. The ipod touch is a substantial game machine as well as a music player - and it’s addictive and the app store (through itunes) has tens of thousands of things. Some are useful and many are really fun. I was leveling a counter and used a carpentry app which had a plumb bob and various kinds of levels; the ipod touch has an accelerometer that can measure tilt in any direction. </p>
<p>The new ipod nano has a video camera. The quality is pretty good.</p>
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<p>I hear this a lot, and don’t understand. Most people will pay $1 for a cup of coffee or a bag of chips, but not for a song that you can enjoy forever? But I do appreciate that you understand that illegally downloading is wrong.</p>
<p>Putting that aside, I would go for the iPod over generic MP3s or, what I have, the Zune. The iPod is just very user friendly, has a lot of nice extra features, and has a pretty good store. Plus, with the weekly free downloads he can learn about other music he might not otherwise be exposed to. Who knows, he might end up liking something from this century.</p>
<p>zipyourlips, I do know Epistrophy well (at least, within the CC universe!), and I will definitely give my son the link to his blog. It sounds perfect!</p>
<p>Thank you all for the suggestions. Now I know the difference between Itunes and Ipod. And emeraldkty tells me that the Ipod will play music from other sources, as well?</p>
<p>I am concerned about him listening to music through earbuds. He used to attach them to his computer to listen to youtube, and I learned that he was blaring the music. I looked into it, and earbuds are worse than earphones, which are worse than listening to music from a speaker. But I know that Ipods can play through radios or speakers, so I think we will tell him that he has to listen that way.</p>
<p>Itunes can import music from other sources- from your CDs or other Mp3-flac etc files.
( or mp4s-movies) so your ipod can play what you have in itunes- but you are not limited to what you obtain from the itunes store.</p>
<p>I hope that is more clear.
[iTunes</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes]iTunes”>iTunes - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>they also have earbuds for kids with sound limiters</p>
<p>Thank you, emeraldkity! That is very helpful.</p>
<p>FYI, I never pay $1 for coffee or chips. And I never DL illegal music. EVERYTHING on Archive.org is legal and free. paying $1 a song is the same or more than buying music on CD. Kids go thru music quickly. I could NEVER have afforded the 1000’s of songs my son downloaded from LEGAL sources (including Napster back when it first started)</p>
<p>I used to pay about $1 for a 45 back when I was a kid, so for me, paying that for a song is nothing…I have a mix of songs in my Itunes library. Most of them were from CDs , but I have also purchased about 350 in the last 3 years
Everyone in my household has either and Iphone, Ipod or Itouch. We all use them daily too.
I no longer listen to any CD’s…I will always have my music, and be free from lost, cracked or scratched CD’s.
Also, the nice thing about Ipods and Itunes, is that is makes gift buying easy when someone wants a suggestion for your child. They love getting Itune’s gift cards.</p>