There is a multitude of ways to play your digital music at home. If your computer is in the right location, you can listen through your computer speakers. You can also use a simple cable to hook up an iPod or other digital music player to the speaker system you already have. See my Quick Tip entitled, a Really Inexpensive iPod Speaker System for details.

Another inexpensive way to listen to your MP3 music at home is with an FM Transmitter. This is a device that will transmit your digital music over an FM frequency that you can then pick up and play on any FM radio. You simply use the included cable to attach the music player to the FM transmitter and tune the transmitter an unused FM station. I have one called the Whole House Transmitter. At $99 it is one of the more expensive units, but also one of the most powerful. It covers my entire house and yard and I can also use it in my car. I often use it to listen to podcasts while I work around the house. I just start the podcast on my iPod, attach it to the transmitter and turn on radios in all of the rooms that I will be in. Then I can walk from room to room cleaning and/or organizing and never miss a word of the podcast. A transmitter like this is also great for parties where you might want the same music playing throughout the house.

For party music and special themed music, I can also attach the transmitter directly to my PC and use it to play Internet radio. You can get thousands of radio stations on the Internet including those from foreign countries. So if you want to have a German party, you can play polka music or you can have a tropical party with Hawaiian music playing through the house.

Again, there are more expensive solutions. I also have a Tangent QUATTRO Wifi Wireless Internet Clock Radio which is an attractive wood-finished tabletop receiver for Internet radio broadcasts. It accesses the Internet through my wireless network and plays thousands of Internet radio stations. The Tangent costs about $250.

If you want the ultimate digital music player you can look at the Sonos which has as many speakers as you like and a wonderful remote control. The Sonos will play the digital music from your computer and will even play Internet radio, but a full Sonos system will set you back about $1,000.