Apart from being a FM radiowith the usual features, it will play music from a variety of sources. A regular CD or an MP3 CD that you burnt yourself, or from MP3 files your put on a flash drive. You can play them sequentially or randomly, set the equalizer to the type of music you're playing. You can set the sleep mode to turn off after a designated time. Also you can Bluetooth music from your phone etc. The sound is terrific for such a smallish system, and it doesn't take up much space. Also you can use it as an alarm to wake you up with music or the radio. It has pretty much all the features you would want. Very really happy with my purchase.