In reality, we all got duped with HitClips. There's certainly an argument that HitClips were more convenient to carry around than Walkmans or CD players, but when you really sit back and think about the logic of it all, it doesn't seem to hold up. And that doesn't include sales through 2004. And it worked, because by 2002, Tiger Electronics had reportedly sold more than 20 million HitClips devices, bringing in $80 million.
#Tiny player for music full
And in some cases, people (me) already owned the full songs and even full ALBUMS, but still chose to pay more money for a song clip. Think about it: People were willing to spend money on part of a song when FULL SONGS existed for less. And our silly little brains - distracted by the novelty of miniature music players and more collectible clutter for our keychains - cast aside any shred of reasonable thinking and believed this to be true. HitClips did an excellent job of making consumers feel like they needed only a taste of a song to be satisfied. Now, in this particular scenario, Michael was likely too cheap to purchase the full song. In school hallways and on playgrounds, the more clips that swung from your keychains, backpacks, or belt loops, the cooler you were. But the price seemed worth it back then considering the collectible tunes quickly became status symbols for America's youth. That's when things got really exciting.įrom 1999 to 2004, HitClips captivated the minds of budding young music lovers, and over the years, the brand ambitiously moved from basic listening devices to tiny CD players and fun extras.īack in the day, a player cost $20.00 and a cartridge went for $3.99, which seems like a lot of money, even now. HitClips initially debuted as toys in select McDonald's kids meals, but became so popular that they transitioned to the main toy/electronics market. Unfortunately for us, that chip happened to be *NSYNC's " It's Gonna Be Me," which is now almost exclusively associated with memes. Luckily, a single chip was with the devices. I recently uncovered my old HitClips players when attempting to clean my basement, but much to my dismay, my extensive song library - hot jams by A*Teens, Baha Men, Aaron Carter, Destiny’s Child, Dream Street, and dozens more - is still packed away somewhere. So what exactly made HitClips so successful? And could they ever follow vinyl's path and make a comeback in today's world? To answer these questions, let's take a trip down memory lane. While, from a tech standpoint, HitClips clearly weren't the most innovative devices, they had such a strong cultural impact that for years, people actually felt compelled to spend money on tiny snippets of full songs - a concept that, in hindsight, seems impossibly absurd.