There isn't anything wrong with MP3 players.

The Zune is a "1.0" Microsoft product. I respect them for getting into the market with a decent music store, even with the glowing obvious issues the reviewers keep complaining about. Microsoft usually loses in the first iteration of something, then becomes a market staple. Windows Mobile, Xbox, heck, even Windows are examples of this. My only complaint about the Zune is the fact that they didn't just use their existing PlaysForSure market base.

I won't rag on iPods -- they are highly popular, not too expensive, and will do what you want. Like the adage in IT that nobody has gotten fired for buying Microsoft, nobody will get fired for buying an iPod. However, my main MP3 player was made before iPods were even around... an old Nomad Jukebox whose hard disk has been upgraded twice. When this thing dies, I may move to a Zen Touch.

Creative is a great player maker. The biggest thumbs up I have for them is that you can copy unprotected music *off* the player, backing it up somewhere. (You can do this with the iPod as well, but it takes renaming all the files in the hidden song directory.) Some other companies (Archos, iRiver) will allow you to just mount the player as a USB hard drive, toss the songs on, and it figures out the rest.

The MP3 players I avoid are some which require a special utility to transfer music to the player... and encrypt the files so they cannot be used ever again if you try to copy them off. Some MP3 players even transcode (yecch) the files into another format.

Lastly, I have no clue how they work, but uxcell.com sells "mp4" players whose style is "inspired by the iPod Nano." These players are generic MP3/WMA players and they are inexpensive... to the point where they cost lower than flash drives of the same capacity.

It may not be mainstream, but I really like the MS Urge music store. For $15 a month, they offer unlimited downloads, the songs painlessly sync to my phone, and are decent quality. I also picked up a 3 month sub to ye ol' Napster to get their "free" PlaysForSure MP3 player, and will try their service out to check how it compares to URGE. Of course, I'm not knocking iTunes -- you can find stuff there that you can't find anywhere, except I try Urge and Napster first so I don't have to shell out cash for individual tracks.