MP3 players are also called a digital audio players. These are portable device that store, organize and play digital music files. Despite the nickname MP3 players, digital audio players can actually play many file formats in addition to MP3, including WMA (Windows Media Audio) and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding).

Three Types Of MP3 players
There are three types of MP3 players: flash memory players, hard drive based players and CD players. Flash memory players hold digital audio files on internal as well as external memory cards. Flash-based players include systems like the iPod Nano, the SanDisk Sansa and iriver clix. Flash memory players are low storage players as far as memory goes and cannot match the hard drive based players. Hard drive based players, also called digital jukeboxes, can hold many more files as the device reads files from a full hard drive. (Comparison: 8GB vs. 160 GB) Digital jukeboxes include systems like the Apple iPod, the Creative Zen and the Microsoft Zune. However, there are two major advantages of flash based players over hard drive based players. First of all, the cheap MP3 player price of the flash player to the hard drive player. Second, the fact that the flash based player is solid and more resilient than the hard drive based player, which is in essence a portable computer that must be carefully guarded. There are also CD MP3 players, which are small devices that play both audio CDs and or digital audio files.

Where To Find Cheap MP3 Players
Yes, you could buy your MP3 players used, or even off of an auction site. But are they really worth the money? Assuming the money is half the cost of a full priced MP3 player then the answer is probably yes. Used MP3 players, as well as refurbished MP3 players are often sold at 50-80% less than the suggested retail price. While it's anyone's guess why the owner decided to depart with their favorite iPod and put it on auction for Ebay, when you see a refurbished MP3 player, then chances are the unit experienced a problem and was fixed. What should people do with faulty MP3 players that were corrected and are now functioning perfectly? Sell them at a discounted price!

Looking for cheap legal MP3s? While you probably already know an illegal MP3 download site, we were thinking more along the lines of Rhapsody.com which offers a 14-day trial to a catalog of over three million songs. With legal MP3 sites there is no bulky software to download or Spyware to worry about.

Now that you know where to find cheap MP3 players and songs, jam away – but be careful on the road, will you?