MusicGremlin was a portable

digital music player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, Electric battery, batter ...

, as well as a subscription based online music service that could be accessed wirelessly directly from the device without the use of an intermediate computer. Both the player and the service were provided by a small

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

based company, MusicGremlin Inc. The company was founded by Jonathan Axelrod and Robert Khedouri. The company was bought in 2008 by SanDisk.

Device specifications

The MusicGremlin, also known as the Gremlin mg-1000, measures 4 x 3.4 x .76 inches, and is currently only available in black. It has a 2-inch

QQVGA A display resolution standard is a commonly used width and height dimension (display resolution) of an electronic visual display device, measured in pixels. This information is used for electronic devices such as a computer monitor. Certain comb ...

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...

color screen. It features a standard five-way navigation pad, as well as dedicated volume control buttons. It has an 8GB

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

, and a battery that lasts 10 hours of playtime. A fairly unusual feature to the Gremlin is its ability to share licensed music directly with other MusicGremlin players on the same

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

network, as well as access music directly from the MusicGremlin online service without the use of an intermediate computer. It can also transfer music directly from a personal computer, but only one running

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. The music player can also play files uploaded from a computer in

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

or WMA format, but these files cannot be shared with other users. The retail price of the unit was currently US$249.99.

Service details

The MusicGremlin online service is offered in two forms: * Subscription service- For $14.99/month USD a MusicGremlin user can download and have access to all the music that they like, and freely share this music with other subscribers. As with previous subscription-based music services, these files expire when you cancel your subscription. * A la carte - Users can also purchase tracks individually for $.99 USD. * Gremlists - A unique value-add feature for all subscribers to MusicGremlin's unlimited downloads service. Available in a wide variety of genres and themes, Gremlists are preprogrammed playlists that are automatically, and wirelessly, downloaded to the user's device. Current titles include "Punk Rock Royalty", "Non-Stop 70s", and "Hot Brown's Love Lounge." Users can subscribe (for free) to as many Gremlists as they want, as well as stream them on MusicGremlin.com.

Reviews

* In a ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' review, Walter Mossberg and

Katherine Boehret Katherine A. Boehret (born 1980) works in internal communications for the Devices team at Amazon, an e-commerce and cloud-computing firm. Early life and education A native of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Boehret is a graduate of the University of De ...

said that they liked the player and were impressed by its "fresh approach", but found that it had some "annoying rough edges" that would impede the device's market penetration if unfixed. * In 2010, ''Time'' named the Gremlin MG-1000 one of their "All-TIME 100 Gadgets"
MusicGremlin Wi-Fi MP3 Player
' from ''Time'' on October 25, 2010.

References

{{reflist Online music stores of the United States