This isn't entirely related, but how is the Vita as an Mp3 player? I wanna know if it's worth it to buy a Vita to listen to music on.
IMHO, it would be a waste for Vita's potential, and also it will fall short in some areas because it's not a specialized music device. Perhaps when PS Mobile apps are released, we may have more music oriented services.
I do use my Vita to play music and music video almost on a daily basis. I use it in the car mostly.
First off, the speakers are too soft. You will need to get a good (loud) headphone set. In the car, you can play it via your car stereo, so there should not be a problem.
There are 4 player software:
* Built-in Music player
Basic/Standard features. There is no advanced equalizer or fancy screen effects or anything, just standard folders for artists, albums, genres, shuffle, playlist. You can't create playlist on the device. Have to sync playlists from PC/Mac (e.g., iTunes playlist). The standard play buttons are all there (FF, RW, repeat 1, repeat all, pause, ...). The equalizer simply offers you a few choices (Off, Heavy, Pop, Jazz, etc.). It looks like there is cover art support, but I don't have them on my PS3, so the Music app just shows a default icon for missing cover art.
* Video app
I use the Video apps to play HD music videos. With 1.80, it finally supports repeat/looping. You can also play from one video to the next automatically. I source these videos mostly from Youtube.
* Youtube
I kept my favorite Youtube music videos in Favorites. So accessing them is quick from the Youtube app. But if I want to download the videos to my Vita directly, I'll visit Youtube website and use the Youtube downloader to download the 720p video to my memcard (It takes 2-3 taps to do so). These 720p videos are godly on Vita. Once on the memcard, you use the Video app to play them.
* Music Unlimited
I subscribe to MU Premium because I want the library to be accessible from iOSes, PCs, Macs and Playstations. Over here, I usually play classical music on my PS3 during office hours. MU Premium allows me to download up to 1000 songs to the Vita and play them offline. I have 21 on my Vita.
If you have the Vita dock, it's supposed to have a high quality audio out to hook your Vita to a good audio system.
In general, if you play your music from the memcard (no video), you can play your Vita games at the same time. I think PSP and PS1 games may not support parallel music playback.
EDIT: Along with 1.80 update, Sony also released Music Unlimited v1.11 on Vita and v1.6 on PS3 at the same time. Saw them got patched yesterday and this morning. Not quite sure what's new yet.