Cheap MP3 players at Walmart
We wrote about the My Musix MP3 player a couple of months ago. It’s a 1GB player made exclusively for Radio Shack and priced at a cheap $99. This year’s holiday season will probably be remembered as the time when cheap but usable MP3 players started showing up all over the place, starting with this lovely model made exclusively for Walmart.
Like Radio Shack’s entry, the ilo 1GB MP3 Player has 1GB of memory and costs $99, but while the My Musix player takes SD cards and comes with a 1GB card, this one has 1G built-in plus an SD card slot. Also, unlike Radio Shack’s model, the ilo comes in red, white, blue, yellow, and Pepto Bismol ™ Pink. It runs on one AAA battery.
It also comes with twelve preloaded tracks from Alien Crime Syndicate, The Fitness, Maggie’s Choice, and The Grift. I had assumed these would turn out to be unknown bands chosen because they could be included without paying royalties, but was surprised to find that Amazon carries albums from all four—so I guess I’m out of touch. But regardless of popularity, kudos to Walmart for including some songs. One of the barriers to MP3 players becoming mainstream is the fact that you have to install software, rip CDs, and so on before you can listen, and the default songs will make it easy to try it out right after ripping off the wrapping paper.
One more thing: this player supports Microsoft’s PlaysForSure DRM, which means it will work with downloaded music from Yahoo Music or Walmart’s own music store. I don’t believe it works with subscription music, though.
[via Engadget]
[Update 11/30/2005: This player does have an SD card slot. It’s also out of stock at Walmart.com, but maybe your local store has one.]