As Christmas parties wind down, and those gift cards are burning a hole in your pocket, you may be considering one of the many portable media devices, such as an iPod, Zune, iRiver, Sansa View, Brain Candy, or seemingly endless others. This week, I was asked the question, "Is an iPod necessary?"

Well, you see, that all depends, because when you buy a portable media player, you're making a commitment, a digital marriage of sorts, thanks to the media industry and DRM, which stands for "Copy Protection because you're a thief, whether you are or not."

All portable media players will play certain standard formats: mp3 music and for those that also play video, .mp4 video. Many (but not all) will also play .wma, .wmv, and .m4a. As long as you stick with mp3 audio and mp4 video, you should be fine and can switch devices as often as you like. If you rip your CD collection, convert it all to mp3 for maximum compatibility.

The problem, though, comes when you want to purchase downloadable music from iTunes, Wal-mart, or one of the many other online music sources. If you buy from emusic.com or Amazon, which offer music in mp3 format, or some of the iTunes songs that you can get in unlocked mp3 format, you're still free, but most online music providers (including most of the iTunes store and all commercial online video sales) have locks on purchased files so you can only play that file on certain devices, so if you buy music at the iTunes store, you can only play it on an iPod. Even Microsoft's "Plays for Sure" locked files won't play on their own Zune player. Consequently, if you decide to switch players, all music you purchased for the previous player is useless.

So, what's a consumer to do? Well, you have several options:

• Decide on a player and stick to it. We're an iPod family and use mostly iPods across the board, but we also listen to mp3 files on our cell phones and Palm handhelds, so this approach falls apart pretty quickly.
• Don't buy DRM music. With Apple slowly unlocking more and more of their music and Amazon doing the same, hopefully more media companies will realize that the real pirates hack their locks as fast as they change them, so their anti-piracy money is better spent on lawsuits against file sharers than on DRM software.
• Buy CD's. Ironically, most music is still bought on CD, and CD's have no copy protection. (A few CD's were relased with copy protection, but the experiment was an abysmal failure and a PR nightmare, because nobody wants to buy a CD that won't play on their computers, and the pirates bypassed the protection the day they were released and spread the files to anyone who wanted them.) This option is less than ideal when you only want one song from an artist.

My recommendation? If you're using a low-end mp3 player--anything sub-$100--either use a rental service like Rhapsody or stick with CD's and mp3's. When you're ready to spend at least $150, it's time to make a decision as to what device you're going to stick with. Look at the features of the different devices, but also go to a brick-and-mortar store like a Best Buy or Circuit City and try out the device. Get a feel for the user interface. Download the desktop software (both the iTunes and Zune software are free) and try them out. See which interface you like better. Look at options like smart playlists, and decide which will give your portable device more power. Talk to friends who have of them, and find out what they like or don't like.

Because you're making a commitment to that device, take the time to do the research. You can always get a different car, but until DRM goes away, portable media devices are forever.