However, if you don’t have any software like this, then follow the instructions below.

1) Get the music files you want. This can be off the internet or off a CD.

2) Make a new folder. Call it something simple like “Music Files”.

3) Place the music files you have into this folder, using Windows Explorer or a similar application.

4) Connect your MP3 player to the computer. This is usually done via the USB port.

5) The computer should assign a drive to your player.

6) Using Windows Explorer or a similar application, drag your music files from the folder you made into the assigned player drive.

7) Disconnect your player, sit back, and listen.

To compress your file sizes, you should read the manual that comes with your MP3 player.

When buying your MP3 player, you need to decide what you want it for. Are you going to use it occasionally? Or is it going to be an absolute necessity? Think about this thoroughly to help you decide how much you want to spend on an MP3 player. There is no point spending over $500 for something that you will only use a few times a year. Similarly, vice versa.

Something else to think about is how many tracks do you wish to be stored? Tens, hundreds, thousands? This turns to your storage. There are two types of storage; flash memory based and hard drive based. If you don’t want to store that many songs, then go with the flash memory option. But if you’re a fanatic music listener who wants to store thousands and thousands of songs, then go with the hard drive.

Also you could get an MP3 CD Player. This means that you copy data to a CD, and listen to it on the player. With this option you can have an outstanding 700MB plus of music stored. Remember though, you will need a CD Writer on your computer.

Another aspect to consider is your connection. The fastest available is FireWire, but this is generally only available on a small selection of computers. The most popular is USB, and although it is not as quick as FireWire, it is still extremely fast.

Other things that may help you make your decision are extras combined into your MP3 player. These include a FM Radio, Sound Recorder and LCD Screens. Really no advice can be given on these, it’s totally up to you.

So with this advice, what’s next? Well really you need to find a few MP3 players that you think are suitable. You can do this by browsing through the reviews on this site.

MP3 – is an acronym for MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 audio layer 3. MP3 is the file extension for MPEGaudio layer 3. Layer 3 is one of three coding schemes (layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3) for the compression of audio signals. Layer 3 uses perceptual audio coding and psychoacoustic compression to remove all superfluous information (more specifically, the redundant and irrelevant parts of a sound signal. The stuff the human ear doesn’t hear anyway). It also adds a MDCT (Modified Discrete Cosine Transform) that implements a filter bank, increasing the frequency resolution 18 times higher than that of layer 2.

WMA – It supposedly sounds just as good as an MP3 file, but is half the file size. The acronym stands for Windows Media Audio. It is an audio file encoded for use with Windows Media Player.

USB – Some MP3 Players are recharged by your USB port. The acronym stands for Universal Serial Bus a protocol for transferring data to and from digital devices

Jukebox – Has a large Hard Disk, usually up to around 80GB. It is a automated device that holds a number of removable optical and magnetic disks for flexible storage requirements.

FM Radio – is a broadcast technology invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong that uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM radio is distributed primarily through broadcast reception of FM radio signals. Only some MP3 players come with this option. It is basically a normal FM radio combined with your player.

LCD – Liquid Crystal Display. Used on the vast majority of MP3 Players. A display that consists of two polarizing transparent panels and a liquid crystal surface sandwiched in between. Voltage is applied to certain areas, causing the crystal to turn dark. A light source behind the panel transmits through transparent crystals and is mostly blocked by dark crystals.

WAV – An audio file format, developed by Microsoft and IBM. The conversion process from an analogue signal to a digital file can be done over several levels – 8-bit or 16-bit depth and 11, 22 or 44.1kHz sampling rate. The highest quality of 16-bit 44.1kHz would mean that a 3 minute song would take up 15MB of space, since the format has no native compression.

Flash Memory – stores permanent information on some palm-sized computers. Unlike RAM (random-access memory), flash memory can continue to store information in the absence of a power source. Palm devices often make use of flash memory to store the operating system and core applications. Unlike ROM (read-only memory), you can write to flash memory, making it possible to update the operating system and applications via software. Flash memory is more expensive than ROM

Hard Drive Storage – The name says it all, it is a hard drive where you can store your data, mp3 songs, movies etc.