Time to release your music on an MP3 player which are also known as MP4 players. The clever random mode on an MP3 player shuffles up your songs, playing them randomly. You can also store all your songs on a player small enough to fit in your pocket. But where does your MP3 player hold all your music?

It was common in the past, for MP3 players to use an internal mini hard drive to for data storage. Having a mini hard drive means the MP3 player has lots room to hold music files. The Apple iPod Classic MP3 player has up to 160GB storage and Archos also has players with similar capacity. One of the drawbacks though, of using mini hard drives in MP3 players, is that they make the players more bulky and heavier. They also demand more power to run, so potentially decrease the battery run time.

Newer MP3 players use flash memory, in fact almost all MP3 players made now are fitted with internal flash memory. They can often hold an additional SD memory card to increase the overall player storage capacity.

Flash memory players have several advantages, they can be much smaller and lighter. Flash memory uses much less power than a hard drive, so batteries last longer. The player can also access your files more quickly from flash memory than from a hard drive.

Flash memory does have some disadvantages though. The storage capacity is significantly smaller than a hard drive, typically between 8GB - 16GB. The price for additional SD cards can be expensive.

There's more to an MP3 player than just music. Almost all MP3 players now come with a color display in a range of different sizes. The smallest are usually 1.8 inch and they can be as big as 4.3 inch or 5 inch. This has transformed MP3 players into videos players too. While watching full length movies on 1.8 inch screen may not be practical, it's still fun to watch short video clips or music videos. The larger screen MP3 players can come with 16:9 ratio screen, and it's a perfect way to watch movie.