OT- MP3 player for 9 yr old

[Jen76b]

My DS wants an MP3 player for his birthday. We're looking to get a cheap mp3 player that will hold just enough music to satisfy him. Not an expensive Ipod or anything.

I know nothing about downloading music (or even where to get it). I usually listen to the radio, or buy a cd if i really like the artist. Can someone clue me in on where to go for music? Is it really usually a $1 per song? If so, that will add up quick.

Any help you can give me would be appreciated.

 

[pabef]

You can actually get an ipod shuffle for around $45 -$60, depending on where you buy. This would be one he could keep until his teen years. I believe it holds around 250 songs. Some of the cheaper mp3's do not hold up very well. You can buy itunes cards at Wal-mart for anywhere from $10-$50. They are like a gift card for downloading music on the itunes website.

 

[doodlesmommy]

I have a shuffle and love it. If my kids didn't have the Disney Mixsticks they would have one too. I think this is a good starter MP3 player and very dependable. I paid $75 for mine on sale. They are always on sale but rarely go below $70 from what I've seen.

 

[Order66]

I bought my 8 year olds the Creative Lab Zen Stone Plus. I got a 2 pack deal from Dell for under $90.00. The Plus is the 2G version, has a small display screen and also has a radio, clock and voice recorder...though they only use the MP3 player and radio so far. They love it and call them their "Ipods". They come in several color choices and mine also came with a cover to protect against scratching. There is also a smaller 1G version that runs around 35 dollars.

Overall the sound quality is very good, louder than any child needs to have it really. It comes with download software, but you can also just rip the songs right from windows media player. I think it's a very nice starter player and for the price I don't think you can beat it.

You can put anything on your computer into your MP3 player. So if you have CD's you like you can copy them in too.

I crossed the shuffle off my list, not really for the price (though I got 2 for just over the price of 1 shuffle) but because the shuffle is so small. I knew my boys would misplace something that tiny. It really is not much bigger than a quater in size. The Stone Plus is around the size of a 9V battery...so still small and light, but not microscopic. I also knew my kids wouldn't like not being able to control the song order or see the title of what was playing. One tends to like to hear the same song over and over (which is one reason I bought him an MP3 player...so I don't have to hear it. LOL)

I told them we'll upgrade to video Nano's when they show me they can take care of their cheaper versions. They have no complaints and take them everywhere.

My only regret is I didn't buy the wall charger. It can be a pain to have to charge them both in a computer each time.

 

[cjackearl]

We bought sansa brand mp3s for our girls last Christmas. They were given good reviews by consumer reports, cost about $50, and have a view screen so they can choose which song to hear, unlike the shuffle which has no view screen. They are powered by a AAA battery, so they don't have to be charged in your computer. IPods can be charged with a wall or car adapter, but you have to buy them separately. We haven't done too much music buying on line. We've mostly just put CDs on them, but songs did cost .99 each at Rhapsody. Good luck!!

 

[MandM-Mom]

We have the Disney Mix Sticks, and although I have seen on here not everyone likes them my DD6 and DD4 love theirs, we have about 100 songs on each so far and they are used daily especially by DD6, she takes it on the bus everyday to listen to on the ride, it is always on her person, music is her "thing" right now, we joke she is a teenager already

 

[tadamom]

My DS6 got an RCA mp3 player for Christmas. It came from Wal-Mart -- here is a link to it: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5774421

It is just perfect for him. He has 55 songs on it right now and I'm sure that it has more room on it since some of his songs are pretty short. This mp3 player is perfect him in terms of size and everything. He listens to it everyday and takes really good care of it too. I would recommend this one to anyone that wants to try one out for their child before spending a lot of money on one.

Funny story about how he got it. We have Christmas with my parents the weekend before Christmas since we live out of state. My cousin's family had come over and we were all opening gifts. My parents left DS6 and DNephew8's mp3 players for last. When the kids opened them, they didn't know what they were so they kind of tossed them to the side. My cousin looked at my and said "they got mp3 players, do they even know what those are for?". I looked at my son and said "what did you get"? He said "I don't know, it says mp3 player -- what is an mp3 player"? When I said it was an ipod he went to jumping up and down totally excited. My cousin then said, I take it he knows what an ipod is. The mp3 player has been the best gift that the two of them got from my parents! I'm about to get DD3 one b/c she is jealous and has to listen to mine. She got a CD player with a Little People cd to go with it. Let's just say, she was very UNIMPRESSED!

 

[mjones73]

We gave our DD6 a Sansa Clip recently and it's a very simple easy to use player. It attaches to your PC via USB which also charges it. It'll show up as a drive under my computer and you can just drop and drag songs to it. I like that it has a max volume setting on it that I can set to keep her from playing it too loud. She doesn't understand the settings so she hasn't figured out how to change that yet.

As for music, if you already have CD's you want to put on the player, you can create mp3's out of them using various programs out there so you don't need to repurchase anything.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

We got a Creative Zen for our 5 year old and I actually like it better than our iPODs. It's small, it is easy to tranfer music to it, it doubles as a video player, and it was CHEAP.

 

[Sheaboys]

I have picked up 3 at Toys R Us. One for $29 it is 512, and 2 that are 1G. The 1G, I was able to get the Sat. before Christmas for $14.98. These are for a 9, 7 and 5 yr old.

I get songs off Rocket. It was $30 I think, for life. You can download as many songs as you want.