I have a pretty massive mp3/flac collection but I still use Spotify for ease of listening to new music. I don't mind the $12/no because fuck ads and it's pretty much the only media subscription I have (except Hulu but that's more for my wife).
And the portable MP3 players are most likely still gonna work nowadays. Most of the them had AAA batteries so no need to worry about flat batteries, iPods have a lot of replacement parts as well as upgrades, ex. SD card conversion kits