Music Gremlin MG-1000 Review
7/10
I like this product a lot. Finally, an MP3 (and WMA) player has come along offering a compelling alternative to the iPod.
Highs: Intuitive design and navigation; large library of music to choose from
Lows: Flaky wireless connection; costly monthly fee
The Music Gremlin player connects to any WiFi connection to allow you to download and play music from a library of 2 million songs.
Summary
Since the days of the 45 rpm single, music has been about sharing. In the ’60s and ’70s, kids swapped records and made custom tapes. In the ’80s and ’90s it was CDs and recordable discs. The Internet Age turned MP3 tune-swapping into the primary source of music distribution for people of all ages—at the expense of the music industry which lost millions in revenue to illegal sharing.
Now with a fee-based–and legal–music download infrastructure firmly in place, Internet downloads are poised to become the medium for music distribution for the foreseeable future. New business models are popping up, expanding music distribution beyond the record store and giving fans new options for how they borrow, share and own music.
One of the more innovative ideas comes from MusicGremlin, a New York-based company whose Web-based download service uses Wi-Fi as the download channel rather than a PC. MusicGremlin players pack 802.11b Wi-Fi chips that tap into home networks, public hotspots and the T-Mobile service (the latter for a fee).
Each Gremlin player comes with the listings for around 2 million tracks, which are always available to users who opt for the $14.99/month subscription plan. You can also purchase tracks on an a la carte plan for 99 cents, competitive with other download services. The songs are encoded in WMA at 128kbps and protected by digital rights management. The player, which also plays MP3s, retails for $299.
Design and Features
The first thing I noticed pulling out a 4 x 2.4 x .76-inch MG1000 Gremlin from the box was the surprisingly light weight of the device. I was expecting something along the line of the video iPod, but this 8-gigabyte HDD player (versus 30 GB or more for the iPod) tips the scales at just 4 ounces. That makes it welcome in carry-on luggage when you’re also lugging along a PC, Treo, noise-cancellation headphones and an assortment of chargers.
I like the feel of the Gremlin too. The rubber lining around the sides has the feel of a smooth laminate book cover. You like holding it in your hand. The 2-inch backlit color LCD, with 220 x 160-pixel resolution, is plenty sharp enough to see the thumbnail album cover, track, album title, date, time of day, time of song, time remaining and other icons that indicate progress along the way (my photos would look good on it, too, and look for that option in the future). Menu pages top out at six lines of text which are easy to read and navigate.
The simple button layout is intuitive and uncluttered. A directional keypad on the front surrounds the enter button. Volume up and down, pause, and a track-advance toggle switch line up on the right side of the player and the power/lock toggle is on the left. The all-black design is farily appealing.
The Gremlin’s prime differentiator is its embedded Wi-Fi chipset. That enables the device to connect to the voluminous Gremlin library over a wireless home network, public Wi-Fi network or a T-Mobile HotSpot connection. Add the cost of a T-Mobile plan to the $15 MusicGremlin Direct monthly music plan, and the fully loaded Gremlin experience starts to get pretty pricey.
The 8-GB hard disk stores roughly 2,000 tracks. Having sapped the capacity of my 4-GB Nano a long time ago, I welcome the additional 4 gigs of storage in the Gremlin. I put it to good use, too, transferring a boatload of my WMA and MP3 files to the player over USB. The Gremlin
You can also download songs from other Gremlin players—legally—as long as that user is a subscriber, too. Although you can exchange MusicGremlin files with other MusicGremlin subscribers, you can’t share the files you download from your own PC library with another device.
To introduce you to new music, the service offers Gremlists, weekly collections of new music organized by genre. If you opt in, the service automatically downloads tunes to your device, replacing the previous week’s Gremlist. If you like a particular list, you can save it to the player. Saving is as easy as right-clicking on a track or list and adding it to a playlist.
The player ships with a battery charger, earphones, and a user guide. An FM tuner is built in to the device.
Image Courtesy of Music Gremlin
Conclusion
I like this product a lot. Finally, an MP3 (and WMA) player has come along offering a compelling alternative to the iPod. It’s intuitive and easy to use, its playlist creation feature is strong (although I’d like to be able to add albums to a playlist, not just individual tracks) and its sharing functions are really fun.
But two issues can make it or break it. One, widespread Wi-Fi access needs to be available, and that’s not a given today. Two, those who would make most use of the sharing features
