I must admit that I went to the store to pick up an ipod when the salesgirl asked me, "what do you need it to do". I hadn't thought about that, but when I told her; she suggested I check out the Micro. For the same price, I could not only download and listen to songs; but I can also record songs live and from the radio, convert files from wav to mp3 and back, and do things that a performer needs to do.
Now I don't leave home without it. I use it to record live gigs with my band, rehearsals, and sometimes auditions (I just drop it in my bag when I walk in the room). I've recorded shows I've done from the audience and the sounds come out great.
I really like this one and recommend it to anyone who is a performer or writer (I easily record my song ideas on trains, planes, buses, etc) or anyone who has to record and remember things; and they easily transfer to the computer to save or burn onto a disk.
Customer service was also great when I had a little problem with the headphone jack. They fixed it in a matter of days and sent it back out to me like brand new.