Time always seems to speed up around the holidays, and the best of gift-buying intentions can quickly become a procrastinator’s panicked nightmare as the shopper’s deadline approaches. The indecisiveness can be crippling, a horrific art of self-sabotaging inactivity.
Lucky for you, Crave’s got your gift ideas covered from top to bottom, in every price range. In addition to gift guides in virtually every channel Crave has to offer, we’ve hand-picked a perfect assortment of items for our 2015 Music Holiday Gift Guide, to take the pain out of picking for the picky. No need to sit in traffic, wait in lines and get caught up in the retail insanity – a few clicks and you’ll be good to go!
Seriously though, if you’re shopping for loved ones you don’t want to be the lame-o who throws couple bucks at a random White Elephant gift that clearly had no thought put into it. Step it up with 8 gift ideas for the music lovers in your life in the 2015 Crave Music Gift Guide.
2015 Music Gift Guide
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USB Mixtape
$24.87, Amazon
Technology meets nostalgia with the USB Mixtape, bridging the gap between analog romanticism and the convenience of the digital age. Make an MP3 playlist, add it to the mixtape drive, add your own inscription and give it to your destined musical recipient for a kickass retro-romance gift.
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Century of Artifice by Michael Cina
$55, TheGhostlyStore
Award-winning artist Michael Cina has produced album covers for a wide range of electronic artists under the label Ghostly International since 2007. The VSCO Artist Initiative helped launch this collection of his work, featuring 100 of the album covers he’s produced over the years, accompanied by Cina’s concept art.
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Samsung Level Over Headphones
$260, Amazon
With their latest line of Level headphones, Samsung sidesteps the cheap hype of inferior technology for a sound experience head and shoulders above the Beats competition, and a far classier look. Level Over offers a full-component over-ear headphone. Excellent mid-range sound, clear highs with very little distortion, and robust low-end without buzzing or drudgy muddiness. Sensible music fans who crave a high-end listening experience will find these a perfect fit.
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Terz Amplifier
$250, Critter & Guitari
Created for Jack White’s musical wonderland Third Man Records, this portable little amp boasts excellent sound and a design aesthetic squarely in White’s wheelhouse. In addition to flashy retro design, there are two analog gain/distortion circuits behind the sound of the amp: a low-end silicon diode distortion and and germanium diode distortion for high end crunch.
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Guitar Hero Live
$69, Amazon
Guitar Hero is all grown up, with a sleek new look, but still a ton of fun in all the right ways. The new edition scraps the toy-like controller for two rows of black and white buttons, and gotten rid of goofy animated avatars and third-person perspective for a more accurate guitar feel and a live performance setting. The interaction is hilariously realistic, the gameplay just as addictively immersive as ever. A huge new list of songs keeps you coming back, while the innovative Guitar Hero TV feature lets you play a stream of songs through various channels which are regularly updated.
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Bowers & Wilkins: Zeppelin Wireless Speaker
$699, B&W
After four years, Bowers & Wilkins returns with a new high-end Zeppelin wireless speaker system, an oval audio monster retooled from their popular line, which adapts to the connected home of 2015. With staggeringly spectacular sound, it’s B&W’s most functional wireless speaker system yet. Linked by a brand new control app available on iOS, Android, Mac and PC, the Zeppelin has full functionality in Airplay, Bluetooth aptX, Spotify Connect and more.
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ITVS-550 Portable Turntable
$49, Amazon
Innovative Technology have bridged the gap between vinyl value and quality with their ITVS-550 turntable, a compact briefcase-size record player that’s perfect for casual listening or transporting your sound to any desired location. We’d expect a $60 turntable to be all but disposable, with flimsy plastic and cheap design, but the ITVS-550 is far sturdier than expected at such a cost. Built-in, full-range stereo speakers deliver sound without added components, making for an all-in-one player that’s great for any age. Read our full review.
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The Rap Year Book
by Shea Serrano
$12, Amazon
Head back to the Big Bang of rap in 1979, and work your way up through the various eras of hip hop as it rose to prominence. Every true hip-hop aficionado should own this book, from the man behind the hip-hop coloring and activity book. Walk through the shifting cultural relevance of hip-hop as Shea Serrano explains the most important rap songs from every year since 1979.
