Ipods can be forgotten, lose their charge, or break. CDs tend to get scratched and therefore be unplayable.

There may not be staff to play the skater's music.

With this new technology, music is stored digitally on the RinkMusic system. The music is given to the rink via a CD, audio file, or downloaded directly from an Ipod or other playback device. When a RinkMusic keytag is presented to the rinkside console, the music program will immediately be loaded for playback over the rink PA system. If another music program is currently playing, the new music program will be placed in the music queue. The skater’s name will be announced alerting them when their music is about to play. This is all done automatically starting with the swipe of a RinkMusic keytag.