If you’re thinking about moving on from Spotify, I can’t recommend enough getting into modern MP3 players (more properly called digital audio players, or DAPs, since they play more filetypes than just MP3) and building your own music library.
There’s been a massive amount of innovation in the lower end of DAPs, and you can get a lot for under $100. Here are the main ones I recommend:
Snowsky Echo Mini - This is the most affordable one, at only $65 CAD (I think it’s even less in the US) and the one that I ended up buying. Designed to look like a cassette player. The main drawback is that the interface is slightly unintuitive and it doesn’t have a touch screen, but I’ve been delighted with mine.
Hiby R1 - This goes for $85 USD, and is the most widely recommended of the bunch for its good UI and wide range of utilities. Has a touchscreen and buttons.
Tempotec V1 - Similar to the Hiby R1, although the specific features are slightly different. Also has a touchscreen and buttons.
Innioasis R1 (honourable mention) - Designed to look nearly identical to an iPod Classic, including a fully functional clickwheel The sound quality on this is notably worse than the other DAPs I listed above, and the Bluetooth is widely reported to be unreliable, but I have to include it for people who desperately want an iPod again (and don’t want to shell out $300+ for a modernized Classic) and because it has an extremely active modding scene.
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You will need to buy a microSD card to upgrade the storage of most of these, although these days you can get 250GB for under $20.
I can’t speak for the others, but the Hiby also has an aux/headphones jack port.
Tbh, I find its UI rather dodgy, it needs a “back” button instead of just “next” and “pause”, and the volume doesn’t go nearly as loud as it should (even outside of headphones mode), but it’s still a solid unit. Plus, I love being able to use folders, ala my ancient PJB-100.
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