The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide for Musicians: Top Picks for Every Budget
Musicians are a tough bunch to shop for, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the tools and tech of the trade. That’s why we’ve put together a list of this year’s top music gifts. We’ve covered all the musical bases, so whether your lucky giftee plays the guitar, tuba, or makes experimental ambient techno, there’s something here they’d be thrilled to find under the tree.
This list suits any budget, with options starting at $15 and continuing up to spectacular music gifts that cost several hundred dollars. Since we’re in sale season, we’ve noted if an item is currently on sale and provided links to national retailers carrying the product. Let’s dig into the best gifts for musicians for the 2024 holiday season!
Anti-Static Record (vinyl) Brush
Price: $15
Available from: Amazon, Sweetwater, Guitar Center, straight from Audio Technica, as well as many other retailers.
Best for: audiophiles, anyone that has or wants Vinyl
It’s no secret that vinyl records have had a huge comeback. In the age of streaming, musicians and music lovers alike have shown that there’s still a massive desire for physical media, with vinyl sections popping up in most of the big retail storefronts. In fact, last year was the first time since the 1980s that vinyl record sales actually overtook CD sales.
If there’s a musician in your life, there’s a good chance they're attracted to the warm and characterful sound of vinyl records. Unfortunately, unlike modern media, vinyl needs a little extra TLC, which is where this gift comes in.
The audio technica Anti-Static Record Brush helps listeners keep their precious records free of dust and other harmful containments, helping to prolong the life of any vinyl collection. Its conductive fibers help dissipate sticky static electricity and its handle doubles as an open cover, keeping the bristles clean while giving the brush a lower profile for easy storage and carrying. This a great stocking stuffer; complement this gift with a choice record if you’re shooting for an extra big smile from the recipient.
Meinl Sonic Energy Wah-Wah Kalimba
Price: $49.99
Available from: Guitar Center, Sweetwater
Best for: Music producers, Anyone who could use a relaxing musical break in their day
Kind of like a musical take on the office stress ball, Kalimbas are a great gift that just about any musician or music lover can appreciate. Also referred to as the African Thumb Piano, Kalimbas use tuned rods attached to a soundboard to create soothingly pure tones. Usually, these instruments are permanently tuned to one of many beautiful musical scales, so even a brand-new player can tap away with instinct and feeling, producing gorgeous little riffs and melodies without hitting any wrong notes. Small enough to sit unobtrusively on any desk or fit in any work bag, purse, or glove box, this is an awesome de-stressor, relaxation aid, and inspiration inducer for the musical soul.
Kalimba’s are also a great way to shake things up for times when a musician is feeling like their usual toolset has become a bit stale. The Kalimba’s tones are sine wavey and pure at their core; to me, sometimes it sounds like the world’s tiniest electric piano, but subtle noises from the player’s fingers along with the natural tone of the soundboard layer a healthy dash of character over the Kalimba’s simple sound. Recording the sound into a DAW makes for great sampling fuel.
This relatively low-priced Meini Sonic Wah-Wah Kalimba features an attractive design, quality construction, and it’s even got an extra trick up its sleeve. The sound hole is placed in such a way that if the player tilts the instrument up and down, it produces a cool wah-wah effect. As a final perk, the nice finished woodgrain and clean design look great on a desk or coffee table.
Dunlop Guitar Pick Variety Pack
Price: Approx. $15 (varies slightly by retailer)
Available from: Amazon, Dunlop
(While Sweetwater and Guitar Center don’t have this exact pack, they have some pretty similar variety packs that also make great gifts.)
Best for: Guitarists
If you’re shopping for a guitarist, you can’t go wrong with a pack of picks. Essential but often overlooked, guitar picks are notoriously hard to hang onto: they seem to grow legs at every band practice, and are one of the favorite foods of the carpet monster. If you manage not to lose one, it eventually just breaks anyway. It’s rare for me to use the same pick for longer than a few weeks. No matter how well equipped the guitarist in your life is, they could always use more picks.
If you don’t know what picks the musician in mind prefers, go for Dunlop’s Recording Variety Pack: it’s got something for everyone. Dunlop as a brand is second-to-none for quality guitar picks (and many other accessories), and their recording variety pack features a bunch of different shapes, sizes, materials, and gauges. Even if your special guitarist has a doomsday stockpile of their favorite picks, the variety pack just might introduce a new model. If nothing else, it’ll provide some fun exploration as they try out the different designs.
Pearl PTT13 Drummer's TechTool
Price: Approx. $19.95 ($32 @ Guitar Center)
Available from: Amazon, Sweetwater, Guitar Center
Best for: Drummers
Drummers have to deal with mounds of essential hardware, a task the Pearl Dummer’s Techtool answers with convenience and reliability. This highly pocketable musician’s multi-tool comes with all the essentials required to keep a drumkit ready for the studio and stage, including six sizes of hex keys, five different screwdriver heads, an essential drum key for tuning drum heads, and, perhaps most crucially, a bottle opener.
G7th Performance 3 Capo
Price: $55
Available from: Amazon, Sweetwater, Guitar Center
Best for: Guitarists
Capo’s are a truly delightful guitar accessory. By gripping all the strings below any fret, they raise the player's performance up in tune, allowing pieces written for open chords to rise up in register, which is transformative for the character and feeling of a song.
This is a super useful and fun gift for beginners. Newer players are often trapped playing open chords at the top of the fretboard, as these are the first chords everyone learns. This phase can get a little dull with nothing but open chords in your musical toolbox. Capos breathe new life into those shapes, dramatically increasing the timbres available to the beginner guitarist.
More skilled players will also be stoked to receive a G7th Performance 3, as this is the Crème de la crème of capos. The product is the result of years of innovation, redesign, and iteration based on customer feedback. Its adaptive radius technology forms to the curvature of any fretboard for an even displacement of pressure on the strings, and the unique tension control system feels worlds better than the simple spring mechanism used for most capos. I personally have owned several. None have ever broken, but I’ve lost a few, and each time, I immediately replaced it because there’s really no going back once you’ve gotten used to the G7th. If the gear ever fails, it comes with a free lifetime warranty.
Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator
Price: $79 - $99 (depending on the model)
Available from: Amazon, Guitar Center
Best for: Synth lovers, producers, anyone that likes fun musical devices
Anyone can have fun with a TE Pocket Operator, but this gift definitely caters to synth lovers most. These calculator-esque synths come packed with everything needed to facilitate a self-contained jam on the go. True to their name, they’re about the size of a trading card, making Pocket Operators an especially good gift for students or anyone stuck on public transportation who could use a fun and musical phone alternative for passing the time.
All models come with a 16-step sequencer and a built-in synthesizer or sampler for making sounds. There are a ton of different Pocket Operators to choose from, all of which are very different. The one pictured above is the PO-44 Sub, focused on low-end bassy sounds with 15 types of bass synth and a drum track. Another popular choice is the PO-33 K.O., a mini sampler that lets you record and manipulate your own sounds and play them to beats produced by the built-in drum track: a good choice for guitarists. Then there’s some completely unique models that come out of left field, like the PO-20 Arcade, which is full of chiptune bleeps and bloops for those who want to make retro video gamey sounds. There are also several special editions, like the Rick & Morty PO-137.
Choosing which Pocket Operator to gift may be a little overwhelming, and my advice is not to overthink it. Pocket Operators are a hate-or-love-it class of product. If you think the musician you’re shopping for would dig these unique and quirky little music machines, they’ll probably be stoked no matter which you choose. I’ve never owned one, but I see them everywhere and have heard enough to know they are quite coveted.
Tascam DR-05x
Price: $79.00
Available from: Amazon, Guitar Center, Sweetwater
Best for: Songwriters, Music Producers
Musical ideas and inspiration seem to drop out of nowhere and can disappear just as easily. A quick and easy way to record high-quality audio is indispensable for any aspiring songwriter or music producer.
Dedicated audio recorders like the Tascam DR-05x provide the shortest path to capture an idea before it floats away into the artistic ether. You don’t have the same distractions as when you need to unlock your phone, search for a recording app, open the app, open a new recording slot, and finally tap the record icon. With a dedicated recorder, you turn it on, press record, and you’re off.
A recorder also delivers far better results than any phone. Instead of a brittle-sounding, distortion-prone phone mic, you get two quality mics positioned optimally to capture great stereo audio. This is huge for crafting social media content. The ability to quickly create studio-grade recordings for Instagram reels and TikTok clips without the hassle of running a DAW session is a game-changer.
The Tascam DR-05x is a great pick because it checks all the right boxes without breaking the bank. It’s got two high-quality omnidirectional microphones, a simple and tactile button interface, runs for 17 hours off two AAA batteries, records WAV files onto a removable SD card for easy exporting, and is small enough to comfortably fit in a pants pocket.
Hercules 5-Piece Guitar Stand
Price: $99.99 (w/o caster wheels)
Available from: Guitar Center, Sweetwater
Best for: Guitarists, bassists, anyone with more than two guitars
For musicians starting to assemble a collection of instruments and gear, space becomes an issue faster than you might think. Standard floor guitar stands take up a lot of space, and after the third or so instrument, stop making sense.
The five-piece guitar stand above puts a big dent in any guitar studio’s spacial profile while still keeping the instruments safe and accessible. If you can find and afford the version with the add-on caster wheels, the whole thing is mobile, which is a huge asset in any studio.
Sony MDR-7506 Monitor Headphones
Price: $84.99 with current sales (typically $99.99)
Available from: Amazon, Guitar Center, Sweetwater
Best for: Audiophiles, Music producers
The Sony MDR-7506 headphones are one of the few tried-and-true industry standards that don’t break the bank. These headphones are known for their good sound quality, solid build, versatile fit, and flat frequency response.
While the MDR-7506s are designed for professional audio work, they’ve also become quite popular with consumer listeners. I’ve used Sony MDRs in both the studio and for pleasure listening, and agree these headphones work great for both applications.
I’ve owned the same pair of MDR-7506s for nearly two decades, and they still sound great. One frequently overlooked feature is their portability; these headphones have a collapsible design that folds up into the included small pleather bag, perfect for traveling and commutes. A nice cherry on top is the included adapter, making it easy to switch between pro-audio and consumer audio uses.
Lutefish Stream
Price: $399
Available from: Lutefish
Best for: All Musicians, Music Producers, Songwriters, Anyone looking to grow their network
One of the biggest headaches for bands and other musical collaborations is finding the space and time to jam. The Lutefish Stream is a new piece of hardware that largely solves both issues, allowing musicians to jam with bandmates and find new collaborators, all remotely.
You can’t effectively use tools like Zoom for music because the network latency makes playing in time impossible. The Lutefish Stream solves this problem with a direct connection to your home network, reducing latency and allowing for real-time jamming over the internet. The Stream comes with two high-quality audio inputs to connect your mics and instruments and all the tools you need to set up live jam sessions. For anyone in a band, it’s a productivity supercharger that leads to more practicing and jams.
Lutefish isn’t just about the hardware; it’s also a growing music community and social platform where musicians find new band members, jam buddies, and collaborators of all sorts. This is an awesome gift for aspiring artists looking to branch out and make new connections.
IK Arc Studio
Price: $249.99 (current sale)
Available from: IK Multimedia, Guitar Center, Sweetwater
If you’re shopping for a music producer that records and mixes their own music, few gifts could top the IK Arc Studio. One of the biggest disadvantages of making music from a home studio is the sound of the room. Professional studios go through a rigorous and expensive tuning process in which acoustic experts analyze the space and add acoustic treatment to create a flat-sounding environment for mixing music. We amateur producers do our best to do this ourselves, but our efforts typically fall far short of a professionally treated space.
The Arc Studio improves the sound of a home studio via hardware room correction. The kit comes with a specialized mic used to measure the faults in the room. Once a profile is set, the Arc studio uses corrective EQ along with some other techy audio voodoo to flatten the sound, attenuating nasty resonances and lifting up holes in the frequency spectrum. The result is a home studio with more balanced sound, which is almost essential for decent mixes.
This Arc Studio definitely works. My home studio is in an particularly poor space, with reflective surfaces, atrocious phase cancellation, and awful geometry. Getting the Arc Studio helped massively. To be clear, It did not turn my home studio into a perfect audio space, but it did boost it to a level of quality I can actually work with without having to spend a fortune tearing the place up and installing corrective materials. Just about every pro reviews and customer feedback I’ve seen agrees that it works. Unless the musician you're shopping for already has a professionally treated space, chances are they’d get a lot from the Arc Studio.