Buying for a music lover can be a little daunting. Whether you have a musician in your life, or a dancer, or anybody who spends all of their free energy focused on finding new music to listen to, there are lots of amazing gifts out there to help them enjoy their favorite pastime. Here are some great ideas for people who love music.
Gifts for Easy Listeners and Aging Rockers
- Turntable Cheese Board: When their partying days have gone from white powder-covered mirrors to toothpick studded gourmet cheese platters, you can give them this pretty rad-looking cheese board that resembles an old school turntable. Sold by Uncommon Goods, it runs around $80.
- Noise-Canceling Headphones: This is a rock-solid gift for long-term music fans of any genre. Guaranteed to provide a true-to-life and clear representation of the recordings they love the most, they are an amazing toy to have on long flights when they want to escape from the surrounding world.
- Victrola Vintage 3-Speed Bluetooth Portable Suitcase Record Player: This cool-looking portable turntable will take Baby Boomers and even Gen Xers back to the days of vinyl. For only around $50, it’s available in multiple colors, including Tie-Dye for that Deadhead you know. Available on Amazon.
- Waylon Trucker Hat: Waylon Jennings has sadly been gone for many years, but amazingly enough, his merch shop lives on. There you can find a wide selection of vintage-inspired hats, t-shirts, and more for the die-hard country rebel you know.
- “Raymond Pettibon: To Wit”: This nice hardcover book is full of Pettitbon’s illustrations, and will be a welcome addition to the old, diehard punk in your life. Pettibon’s illustrations graced the posters of countless classic punk bands, and his artwork is highly collectible these days.
- Personalized Gold LP Clock: This golden clock that can be personalized by you is a stunning conversation piece, reminiscent of the gold records of days gone by. At around $100, this is a pretty nice gift for someone you love. Find it at Uncommon Goods.
Gifts For Fans of Electronic Music
If you have a friend or loved one who enjoys Hardcore, Trance, Electronica, Ambient, Industrial, or Hip Hop, try these gifts:
- Floating Pool Bluetooth Speaker: Hammacher Schlemmer offers an amazing speaker that floats, provides professional-quality sound, and features amazing light shows to complement your pool party night or day.
- LED Light Gloves: If your favorite person enjoys raves, club dancing, Burning Man Festival, or other dancing or clubs that have amazing light shows, these gloves make amazing light patterns that change and dazzle bystanders as the hands are waved and moved about. Other accessories like light batons and hula hoops are available and add a new dimension to dancing.
For the Amateur Musician
Do you have a musician in your life? Here are a few things they might enjoy:
- Smartphone Capo: This is a great idea for beginning and intermediate level guitarists: a capo that holds a smartphone against the fretboard or headstock of the guitar to allow the player to watch the screen for tabs or to watch lessons while they play. Available at many online retailers, this little gadget is unusual and incredibly helpful for learning.
- DIY Guitar Pick Punch: If you have ever played guitar, then you know how easy it is to lose picks. Picks aren’t that cheap, either, especially for students and other people who are typical guitar students. This nifty device takes old credit cards or other rigid pieces of plastic that you like to punch out a brand new pick anytime you need one. It has never been easier to upcycle old pieces of casted-out plastic that serve no other real purpose. Find these at many online retailers.
- Guitar Picks Made of Old Change: On Etsy, where amazing crafters sell lots of handmade wares, there are guitar picks that have been made from 25 cent pieces and other coinage. These metal picks are incredibly unique and a great gift for a musician.
- Build Your Own Guitar Kit: Uncommon Goods offers an amazing kit that has all of the components for a curious young musician to build a cardboard electric guitar, complete with a working amp. All components work just like any other electric guitar and amp.
- GECKO Thumb Piano: This tiny little thumb piano will fit easily into any purse, and provides a way to practice piano anywhere. For under $50, and available at Amazon and elsewhere, it is a nice conversation piece, as well as a functioning instrument.
K-Pop, Boy Bands, and Super Cute Fan Toys
Boy bands might have some of the most die-hard fans of all, and fan merch is their life!
- Light Sticks: If you don’t know what a light stick is, you aren’t alone. A light stick, to a K-Pop (Korean Pop Music) fan, is an incredibly unique fan object that only K-pop is known for. Each and every group has its own distinctive style of light stick, and the fans collect their favorites. These glow sticks are uniquely designed for each group, sold by their official merch store (at least initially), and are used at live shows the same way lighters and cell phones have been used, historically. Although they can sell out quickly in official merch stores if you know the favorite K-Pop band of your loved one, you can often find the much sought-after light sticks at merchandisers like Cokodive, Ktown4U, K-Pop Town, and sometimes even on Amazon.
- One Moment Perfume: This signature scent by mega-boyband One Direction will be a great gift for any big fan of theirs. The main scent notes are of red currants, wild berries, and pink grapefruit, with floral mid notes of jasmine, freesia, and frangipani. The base notes are described as “sheer woods”, patchouli, and musk. Pretty complex stuff: just like the deep tunes of One Direction.
- “Kill the Boy Band”, A New York Times Bestselling Novel: This book by Goldy Moldavsky will appeal to boy band fanatics. The fictional story of a group of four superfans whose complete devotion to their boy band of choice has resulted in what is described as “murderous” comedic results.
- Jonas Brothers Official Merch X Laval Clear Backpack: The Jonas Brothers are pretty long in the tooth to be referred to as “boys”, but by some kind of Disney magic they are still on top of the Boy Band game. This clear backpack from their merch store runs about $100 and is guaranteed to make any fan squeal with giddy delight.
Thinking Outside of the Gift Box
If you have a family member or friend out there who is a fanatical fan, no matter the age, it’s a good idea to search for the merch shop for their favorite musician.
Musicians who have been dead for decades live on in their fan merch shops online, and most offer some pretty amazing vintage-inspired shirts, hats, and more to wow your loved one.
Searching auction sites for vintage memorabilia is another option that will no doubt impress the music lover in your life.
Finding old concert fliers as fan art can be the find of a lifetime for a fan, and framing up old ticket stubs provides an equally interesting art piece.
If you have a concert that you share with the person you are gifting, it will make the object even more special when it comes from you.
