With technology forever advancing, there are a variety of ways out there that you can enjoy listening to your favorite music. This article will hopefully explain all of the different types of systems and help you choose which is right for you.

Most avid music listeners own some type of good home stereo system. This used to encompass everything from vinyl records to 8-track tapes to cassette tapes and now compact discs. No matter what you have at home, you are able to boost up your system to get excellent quality of sound and enjoyment of your favorite artists. The downside of this type of system is that it can get quite expensive depending on the components that you purchase. Also, it is impossible to take this system with you to listen to your favorite music.

Okay, so now you want to take you music on the go with you. Your options here are much larger. First of all, every car out there has some type of stereo systems that comes standard with purchase. It is your call whether you want to upgrade the system or not, but this can be very pricey as well. Most car systems encompass either a cassette player and a CD player or both. It is definitely a good way to listen to your music, especially in this day and age when the average commute from work to home is about 45 minutes to one hour. Again, this is another static system in that it is not portable and you can’t take it out of the car and carry it with you to listen to your favorite music.

So then technology started to think along the portable lines with the manufacturing of the Walkman. But this was short lived because technology then developed something that was much more portable, had better sound quality and held much more music then the Walkman. This was the invention of the MP3 Player. What a great invention this was. This allows you to download and listen to all of your favorite artists in a tiny little box that you can slid into your pocket. Even today, with technological advances, you are able to download television shows and movies that you can watch from your MP3 player. The down side of the MP3 player is that because of the digital format, the music quality is not top quality to the avid music listener. Quality of sound is lost somewhere in the download process. To the average listener, this might not be an issue, but to someone with a ear for music, this can be disconcerting. The other thing is that because the size of the MP3 player it is easily lost or broken. It is probably a good thing that the prices have dropped so dramatically in the last year or so.

Then there is the computer. You can listen to music on the computer as well. You are able to copy music from your CD. You can listen to MP3’s, movies on DVD. You can even download music from all over the World Wide Web or listen to Streaming music. This is a great way to be able to listen to your favorites while you are sitting there working. I do this all the time and in fact, I have my favorite artist on while I type this article. Again, the biggest downside to this is that you just can’t take it with you that easily. Yeah, there is the laptop computer, but unless you have a place to set it up, and also to mention that it is much larger than an MP3 player, it can be cumbersome as well as an expensive radio.

Then comes the big daddy of new technology- Satellite Radio. Satellite radio is a great way to get excellent quality, commercial free radio enjoyment. You are able to hear your favorite music and programming where ever you go, in you home, in you car, at work and yes, even on a vacation. You have to purchase the receiver which is a one time cost. Some of the receivers can be quite pricey, but definitely not as costly as a home stereo systems or an upgrade to a car stereo system can be. It is definitely worth the cost though, because you will be able to listen to any genre of music that you like. You will be able to get any talk show programming that you enjoy and you get constant weather and traffic updates from all over. Okay, so this sounds too good to be true, right? There has to be some catch… and there is…. Unfortunately you have to pay for a monthly subscription in order to partake in the maximum enjoyment of satellite radio. This is the price we pay for commercial free, crystal clear quality sound. But before you stop reading and say, I told you so, here is the best part, it only costs about 12 to 15 dollars a month. Instead of eating out dinner every Friday, think about skipping one Friday and eat at home. This will pay for your satellite subscription.

Ultimately it is your choice. You can continue in your old ways and only listen to your radio and the barrage of commercials that overtake enjoyment, or… you can look into one of the many other ways to listen to your favorite artist. It is my opinion however that satellite radio is probably the best way to get excellent quality sound and listen to any type of music that you want, anywhere that you want. Happy choosing.