The invention of the MP3 player, with MP4 player and iPod following it, has revolutionized the music industry. These lightweight, reasonably priced, portable music gadgets are almost everywhere you look. Earlier they used to be the obsession of the geeks, nerds and the electronic enthusiasts but today these players are a must have consumer electronic item for almost everyone whether it is the stay at house mom, working business executive, fitness freak joggers, teenagers or even the bored granddad.

MP3 player has personalized music like never before. The MP3 craze has reached its peak with people wanting more and more features in their players. What they want is to download their complete collection of music in their player. You can download and store more than thousands of songs inexpensively into your device and listen to it whenever you want; whether at office or at home or tolerating a boring lecture or even struggling past a heavy traffic jam. A music player seems to be in every hand nowadays. These are wireless, portable, wonders of music and entertainment that can store, systematize and play music on demand.

The three main types of digital audio players are MP3 CD Players that can play both data CDs and audio CDs with MP3 format files, Flash-based Players that are solid state devices with internal media or memory cards type external media and Digital Jukeboxes like the apple iPod and Creative Zen which can read digital audio files from a hard drive. These types of players are the most advanced in technology and have high memory ranging from 1.5 GigaByte to 100 GigaByte.

There is a myth regarding MP3 and MP4 player as Mp4 being a successor of Mp3 player, but these two are different things. Fundamentally, Mp3 is a specific category of audio format while Mp4 is actually a container format. But an Mp4 player can also play Mp3 files besides MP4 format files with complete clarity just like the original player.

The iPod was introduced by Apple Inc. and was launched in October 2001. The varieties of iPod available today include video fifth generation iPod, the small iPod nano and the display free iPod shuffle. You can use Apple`s iTunes software to transfer music of your choice to the devices. An iPod supports and plays MP3, AAC, AIFF, Protected AAC, WAV and some other audio file formats. The Apple iPod also has some additional features like displaying text files, viewing contacts and synchronizing it with the host computer, gaming facilities like the Brick, solitaire, Parachute and Music Quiz. A lot of accessories have been made for the iPod such as sound recorders, wired remote control, FM radio tuners, and cables for enabling TV connections.

iPods have often been criticized due to their short life-span, delicate hard drives.There are also some health risks associated with frequent use of these players which can lead to loss in audio capacity and can also lead to absent mindedness.

All of these music players are portable and use either a semi-permanent rechargeable battery or conventional batteries that can be disposed or recharged. Some MP3 / MP4 players also have additional features like playing FM stations, games, microphone for voice recording, address storage book and etc.

The MP3 player have created a huge mass hysteria amongst some age groups leading to many companies joining the bandwagon to design and market different types of MP3, MP4 players and iPods. It has also given rise to an entirely new industry of downloading sites. This heavy competition has forced companies to find new and innovative use of these players like incorporating features like camera, mobile and etc.