[lin_lin]

I can relate to an extent. I use a USB stick music player. It's essentially like a usb drive with a headphone jack. I've had it years. I never use my smartphone for music, I don't see the need. When it breaks, I'll get another one.

[wodenokoto]

Which one are you using? I'm currently on a dying first gen ipod shuffle.

I tried getting a cheap "mp3 stick" of aliexpress but it came without memory. I'd rather not waste electronics a second time.

[zeotroph]

I am regularly on the lookout for one which plays opus/flac plus the usual other formats and has much more than 4G storage, but I fear this type of gadget will die out before long.

Or hopefully the Arduino and Raspberry type of hardware gets small enough that I can build my own (with which I will probably never be allowed on an airplane).

[lin_lin]

It's some sort of Sony Walkman. Dunno which model as all of the printing on the device has worn away with use!

[wodenokoto]

I have been looking for those. They seem to be out of production:(

[coldtea]

>I never use my smartphone for music, I don't see the need

Shouldn't it be the inverse? Why the need for another device, if you're already carrying the smartphone?

[collyw]

Battery life for one. I would happily take a cheaper smaller music player many places I wouldn't take my phone, as its more important that I don't loose or damage the phone. Plus I found the default Andorid music player a mess to use. No idea where teh files are stored on the device. I wanted to move music from main memory to the SD card i added later. Way more effort than it was worth.

My Sansa Clip years ago was a far better device for music and survived the washing machine a couple of times.

[detaro]

Question of perspective. Why the need to use the smartphone (and look into and accept the compromises coming with that) when you already own a device made perfectly for the task of playing music? seems like an equally good question to me. (I don't own a dedicated MP3 player anymore, but have several times considered getting one again because of the downsides of using the phone)

[esrauch]

I don't really understand what the downsides are, given the choices are "phone" or "phone + music player". Is "music player only" actually a feasible option for anyony (besides the case of runners, where you are temporarily without your phone)?

Like how is "the music player battery lasts for 5 days, and phone battery lasts 1.5 days" a pro-music-player argument: it means the options are "charge every day" and "charge every day, and additionally a second thing every 5 days", right?

[detaro]

Phone is heavier and bulkier, so I prefer to leave it at my desk when I'm not moving between places, and I might not always want to carry it if I'm just quickly going somewhere. In comparison a small MP3 player will clip somewhere (which also would make cabling more comfortable when I'm carrying the phone).

My phones never last 1.5 days of use if they have to play music all the time as well, at least not once the battery is a year old. With my current one, having to balance usage to make sure it'll be available when I need it is getting annoying and includes "no music now".

At least in the past storage in phones was needlessly expensive and scarce, this has gotten better, and you can still get enough phones with microSD slots, despite the best attempts of some manufacturers to get rid of them.

Bluetooth also has gotten more reliable, that helps, but at least among the devices I've tried that's really a recent development, and still not perfect.

I totally get that other people will evaluate this differently (and/or buy better phones than me), but I don't see it as an obvious answer.

[coldtea]

>Phone is heavier and bulkier

A modern phone compared to a Zune?

[detaro]

The parent of this subthread, whose "I don't see the need to use a phone for music" you questioned wasn't talking about a Zune.

> I use a USB stick music player. It's essentially like a usb drive with a headphone jack.

This specific point clearly doesn't apply to a Zune, so we can assume remaining Zune users have other individual reasons why they like what they have.

[zeotroph]

Tactile buttons. A touchscreen is impossible to operate without looking at it. I assume most of us MP3-stick users have listening habits which requires us to change the track or volume every few minutes, if not more often.

[coldtea]

>Question of perspective. Why the need to use the smartphone (and look into and accept the compromises coming with that) when you already own a device made perfectly for the task of playing music?

It's not such a question for the parent though, as they said that: "I never use my smartphone for music, I don't see the need" -- which implies they ALSO have/carry a smartphone.

[detaro]

Apparently my sentence wasn't worded clearly enough (sorry!), read it as:

> Why the need to use the smartphone FOR MUSIC (and look into and accept the compromises coming with that) when you already own a device made perfectly for the task of playing music?

[chrisseaton]

> I never use my smartphone for music, I don't see the need.

But if you want a music player, why carry and charge a second device if you already have a phone?

[revelation]

Because it's heavy, large, battery life sucks, breaks when dropped, might not even have a 3.5 mm jack and most of all requires me to look at its display to do anything.

I have one of those Sansa Clip players running Rockbox that I use for sport and bike commute. It costs nothing, it is virtually indestructible, has more space for music than anyone ever needs and I can operate it without ever taking it out of the pocket its in. Simple physical button presses to start, shutdown, resume last playback position, adjust volume and move forward and backwards between songs and folders.

[lin_lin]

> I can operate it without ever taking it out of the pocket its in.

Yes! That's something so innate to my usage that I forgot to mention it.

[lmm]

> requires me to look at its display to do anything

Don't phones tend to have an inline control on the headphones that you can operate by feel? Certainly mine does.

[pingec]

I love the Sansa Clips. Does Rockbox still produce noise when not playing music in the headphones?

[revelation]

Not for me unless I put the volume all the way up. The Sansa Clips are a great device, they just don't seem to make them anymore :(

[collyw]

Agreed, they were a good price and I managed to stick mine through the washing machine a couple of times and still use it.

[lin_lin]

Charging isn't an issue, it lasts days and days. I don't actually remember the last time it ever ran out. Not mention I use it as a handy sub storage for other files. It's ultra light, and as someone who does a bit of running I'd feel ridiculous having one of those arm patches to hold a £xxx phone.

[lmm]

Weight is a good reason - though I now play music on my fitness tracker/smartwatch (Gear Fit 2).