Music students practice a lot, record a lot and share walls with roommates. Theory and composition homework happens on a laptop, and every practice session is better if you can hear it back. The best gifts for music students fit a dorm room and a backpack. Every pick comes from our rankings, with tonight's Thomann price.
Gifts for music students under $150
AKG K-240 Studio, $76
Semi-open studio headphones, comfortable for hours of ear training and listening assignments. #2 of 106 studio headphones.
Audio-Technica ATH-M30X, $88
Closed-back headphones with swiveling earcups, the better choice when a roommate is in the same room. #5 of 106 studio headphones.
Korg nanoKEY Fold, $111
A 25-key MIDI keyboard that folds in half to fit a laptop bag, with octave shift and ribbon controllers: theory and notation homework anywhere. #2 of 34 master keyboards (up to 25 keys).
Arturia KeyStep mk2, $130
A 32-key controller with velocity, aftertouch, an arpeggiator and a polyphonic step sequencer, for composition and electronic music students. #6 of 54 master keyboards (up to 49 keys).
Gifts for music students under $250
Yamaha AG03 MK2, $184
A USB interface and small mixer in one, with phantom power and built-in compressor, EQ and reverb: recording, streaming and online lessons from the same desk. #12 of 206 USB audio interfaces.
Zoom PodTrak P4next, $189
A recorder with four XLR mic inputs and four headphone outputs, for recording a small ensemble or a student podcast. #5 of 43 portable recorders.
Zoom H5, $240
A portable recorder with an X/Y stereo mic, for recording every practice session, lesson and jury. One of the highest-ranked recorders we track: #1 of 43 portable recorders.
Questions
What is the best gift for a music student?
A portable recorder like the Zoom H5 ($240): hearing your own practice back is one of the fastest ways to improve.
What do music majors need for their dorm?
Closed-back headphones, a small MIDI keyboard for theory and notation software, and a recorder.
How we picked. Every product comes from an AudioFu ranking, scored on demand, price, specs and brand; specs from Thomann's product data. Prices are converted from euros at the European Central Bank rate and updated every night, as are the ranks.
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Denis Kataev runs AudioFu. Every night the site records the prices of more than 38,000 instruments and studio tools at Thomann, and he writes about what those numbers show: what got cheaper, what just arrived, and which discounts are real.
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