# Early MP3 player by Creative Labs. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667 "2016-07-11T16:33:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/1 "2016-07-11T16:33:21Z")
Prior to the introduction of the iPod, I had a small, flash-based portable mp3 player by Creative Labs. All I can find is the Muvo, which was introduced later. Can’t seem to find it via Google. Any suggestions? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Doubticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@Doubticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubticus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/2 "2016-07-11T16:39:32Z")
Do you mean the Zen? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/3 "2016-07-11T16:42:40Z")
What are you looking for? Users guide? Warranty info? Replacement? There are still lots of mp3 players being sold.😕 ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/4 "2016-07-11T16:46:33Z")
> [@Doubticus](#): > > Do you mean the Zen? No. It’s form factor was more like the Muvo. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/5 "2016-07-11T16:47:37Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > What are you looking for? Users guide? Warranty info? Replacement? > > There are still lots of mp3 players being sold.😕 Pictures. Drive size. Intro date. Model names. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/6 "2016-07-11T17:01:25Z")
Was it the [Diamond Rio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_(digital_audio_players)) series? Created by Diamond Multimedia which was purchased by Creative Technologies. I had a Diamond Rio 500 back in the day. That thing was amazing, it could hold about two CDs worth of music! How far we’ve come. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/7 "2016-07-11T17:17:20Z")
Creative Nomad was their first MP3 player. > **[Creative NOMAD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_NOMAD)** > > The NOMAD was a range of digital audio players designed and sold by Creative Technology Limited, and later discontinued in 2004. Subsequent players now fall exclusively under the MuVo and ZEN brands. > The NOMAD series consisted of two distinct brands: > These models appear as a USB mass storage device to the operating system so that the device can be accessed like any other removable disk, a floppy disk for example. Older MuVo devices and all Jukebox models use a custom protocol named PDE (Portabl... The Nomad evolved into the Muvo so some sites will list it as basically the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/8 "2016-07-11T17:24:54Z")
I had a Creative Zen Nano. I got it because at the time, the Creative mp3 players had the best sound reproduction (I mean the best out of cheap mp3 players). As I recall Apple tried to sue Creative because they came out with some gadget named Nano at around the same time. All the Creative Zens are on the wikipedia Creative Zen Mp3 Players page, if you want to see. There are LOTS of models of all sizes and shapes. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/9 "2016-07-11T17:49:08Z")
> [@oft\_wears\_hats](#): > > Was it the [Diamond Rio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_(digital_audio_players)) series? Created by Diamond Multimedia which was purchased by Creative Technologies. I had a Diamond Rio 500 back in the day. That thing was amazing, it could hold about two CDs worth of music! How far we’ve come. No, that’s not it. The form factor was similar to the Muvo [on this page.](http://anythingbutipod.com/2008/03/10th-anniversay-of-the-mp3-player/) But the one I’m talking about was out at least a year before the first iPod was released in Fall, 2001. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/10 "2016-07-11T20:39:04Z")
(If the company name is off …) Transcend is another company that has made mp3 players in various “stick” configurations. My old one is chewing gum stick sized, but they also made fatter ones. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/11 "2016-07-11T22:08:11Z")
> [@misling](#): > > As I recall Apple tried to sue Creative because they came out with some gadget named Nano at around the same time. Nope, pretty sure no one ever got sued over the name. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/12 "2016-07-11T22:18:20Z")
> [@oft\_wears\_hats](#): > > Was it the [Diamond Rio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_(digital_audio_players)) series? Created by Diamond Multimedia which was purchased by Creative Technologies. I had a Diamond Rio 500 back in the day. That thing was amazing, it could hold about two CDs worth of music! How far we’ve come. I had one of those before hardly anyone even knew what an MP3 player was. Everything I could find on it says that early ones ones like I had were released with 32mb (that is megabytes, not gigabytes) storage but I could have sworn mine only had 16mb and it was fairly expensive. In any case, it could only hold a handful of songs at a time but it worked great otherwise. I just had to be really thoughtful about what songs I put on it because I was going to hear them over and over. I took another couple of years for MP3 players with decent storage to become widely available and cheap enough to consider. Then the iPod was invented… ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/13 "2016-07-12T01:20:33Z")
The MuVo series was the successor to the earlier Zen Nano series. Is that what you’re thinking of? I had one too. [https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=951&q=zen+nano&=&oq=&gs\_l=](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=951&q=zen+nano&=&oq=&gs_l=) Also pretty sure the Nomad wasn’t the first MP3 player. In the US market that’s probably the Diamond Rio, elsewhere it might be this guy: [MPMan - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPMan) The Nomad was the first one that had some huge capacity for the time… maybe 1 gig or something? It spawned the whole “[No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.](https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod)” quote. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-mp3-player-by-creative-labs/759667/14 "2016-07-12T01:52:24Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > The MuVo series was the successor to the earlier Zen Nano series. Is that what you’re thinking of? I had one too. > > [zen nano - Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=951&q=zen+nano&=&oq=&gs_l=) > > Also pretty sure the Nomad wasn’t the first MP3 player. In the US market that’s probably the Diamond Rio, elsewhere it might be this guy: [MPMan - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPMan) > > The Nomad was the first one that had some huge capacity for the time… maybe 1 gig or something? It spawned the whole “[No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.](https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod)” quote. The Diamond Rio with 32 GB (30 minutes) was the first mp3 player introduced in the US. I remember when it came out because it caused such a stir with copyright holders that the RIAA actually got a judge to issue a 30-day restraint on its initial sale. I knew then that that (mp3 players) were going to be the future of music players…