Walkman on the wild side

You have to pity those Gallagher boys, when their new album Heathen Chemistry - not officially released until July - is already plastered all over the internet. A spokesman for Oasis said: "The recordings are of very poor quality and are not of the final album mixes. We hope anyone who has downloaded the tracks enjoys them but does not take them as any indication of the finished album."

The thief has not been unmasked, but the real culprit is that old mischief-maker MP3, which enables people to rip off tracks and put them on the net. The trouble is, all this bad blood obscures the fact that MP3, and MP3 players are an increasingly excellent way to listen (legitimately) to a record collection. First, the basics: MP3 is nothing more exciting than a file format, rather like a .doc Word document. What's clever is the way turning a piece of music into an MP3 file removes all the extra bits that the human ear does not hear and thus dramatically reduces its size - small files are easier to download and move between devices.

True, getting into digital music requires more effort than loading up with CDs at your local record store, but, for even the minor enthusiast, all the technology is in place. There are millions of MP3 files on the net and there's lots of free software to help you find and copy them to your PC; and with more ISPs offering unmetered access, you don't have to worry about download times. Alternatively, it's easy to "rip" from CDs you already own and there are plenty of cheap PCs with CD writers ready to turn them into personalised discs. Once you've encoded your files or made your CDs, you can copy them across to a hardware digital music player (from around £130) for music on the move.

And the best thing is that the range of players is exploding. There was once a craze for gimmicks, but go for a dedicated player, from one that records onto hard disc to those that play off special CDs. Digital music is unjog-gable, making it suitable for fitness freaks. Most players are smaller and can store more music than the CD equivalents.

PICK OF THE PLAYERS

CD player with brains

The Philips Expanium EXP303 not only accepts the prerecorded shop-bought CDs, but also those you've created yourself on a PC or Mac with a recordable CD-Rom drive. Although it's a bit DIY for some tastes, if you have the patience and a bit of easily downloaded free software you can pack around 150 MP3 tracks on a single, recordable CD. Sporty types will appreciate the 100 seconds' worth of jog-proof protection and you can expect around 25 hours of play from two AA batteries. Includes mains adaptor and car kit.

Price: £119, from electrical and hi-fi shops or call 0870 900 9070 (www.audio.philips.com).

Vast music library

The new version of Creative Lab's ground-breaking Jukebox 3 now stores 800 CDs' worth of MP3 songs, adds fast connection known as IEEE 1394 for faster transfers (30 seconds per CD), has a lithium ion battery for 11 hours' playing time (an optional additional battery doubles that), a remote control and an optical/ line-in socket so you can encode new music directly from a hi-fi. It's around one third smaller than previous versions, easier to use, and there are lots of appropriate settings and "environmental effects" for whatever you are listening to wherever you are listening to it. Available from the end of the month and a sure-fire hit.

Price: £349.99. Available on line and from most computer shops. More at www.europe.creative.com

No bigger than a lighter

The Sony NWMS11, which now includes the 128MB version of Memory Stick, Sony's proprietary removable storage medium, is good for around 160 minutes of music. The accompanying software encodes music in Sony's preferred ATRAC format and places restrictions on the number of copies you can make via a system that forces you to "check" music in and out as you move it from PC to player. That aside, listening results are excellent, controls are easy to use and effective, the price of the drop-in Memory Stick makes the products that use them increasingly attractive and it is tiny, tiny, tiny.

Price: £299, call 08705 111999 for stockists. More at www.sony.co.uk

Coming soon ...

The Philips Straemium MC-i 200. This will use a high-speed broadband internet connection to receive a subscription service. Due here by the end of the year.