Every family has at least one, and every one has several family members who simply don’t know what to get them come the holiday season.

Music mavens are the family music expert, the one family member who can tell you all you need to know about the Beatles and all you don’t want to know about Vanilla Ice. But all that expertise can make it very difficult to find the right gift for the music maven come the holiday season.

Shopping for an expert often requires seeking advice from an expert. Bowers & Wilkins, Britain’s leading exporter of loudspeakers and the number one imported brand in North America, offers the following tips to shoppers puzzled about what to buy the family music maven this holiday season.

* Send them to the show. Most music aficionados would admit there’s no experience quite like a live concert. Put a smile on your favorite music fan’s face this holiday season with tickets to see his or her favorite band in person. If possible, shop early to find the best seats and the best deals, just make sure the concert hall isn’t too far away from your loved one’s home. And if the tickets prove ultra-affordable, include a few extra dollars for dinner or a commemorative T-shirt.

* Give the gift of a concert for one. If concert tickets are a bit over budget, holiday shoppers can still give music lovers the concert experience. With noise isolating design tailor made for use on the move, Bowers & Wilkins P5 Mobile Hi-Fi Headphone allows listeners to hear concert-sound quality regardless of where they are, be it on the train, listening at home while the baby’s asleep or simply going for an evening stroll. Thanks to a rigid metal faceplate and sealed-leather ear pads, listeners are afforded an enveloping listening experience without completely removing the user’s sense of place.

* Let them document it all in a diary. Saving ticket stubs is a popular hobby among music fans, allowing them to look back on, and sometimes laugh at, all the shows they have attended over the years. A ticket stub diary makes storing all these cherished memories that much easier. In addition, a ticket stub diary makes for great conversation, as friends and guests can’t help themselves when it comes to looking through another’s diary, even if that diary is loaded with old concert tickets.

* Enhance their favorite products. These days it’s hard to walk 10 feet without seeing someone rocking out on their Apple iPod or iPhone(R). Holiday shoppers puzzled as to what to get the music fan in their life can use the iPod and iPhone’s popularity to their advantage by looking for items that can enhance these must-have mobile devices. For example, an iTunes gift card is the same as giving fans their favorite music, but allows them to choose which album or even which individual songs they prefer.

For those who feel a gift card is too impersonal, the P5 Mobile HiFi Headphone comes supplied with a “Made for iPod” approved cable, allowing for speech and device control while improving sound quality. What’s more, the P5 also comes with a high-quality standard audio cable with gold-plated plugs, and switching between the two cables takes only a matter of seconds.

* Book it! Few music fans can resist a book by or about a favorite artist. Anecdotes often abound when musicians write books, and such anecdotes make the perfect fodder for devoted fans. Such behind-the-scenes looks at the life and times of successful musicians often proves too tempting to resist, and the slew of titles by musicians from Anthony Kiedis to Anne Murray is proof positive that when it comes to holiday gifts, books on bands and artists are a can’t-miss.

For more information on Bowers & Wilkins, visit www.bowers-wilkins.com. Bowers & Wilkins P5 Headphones can be found online at www.apple.com, www.jr.com and www.crutchfield.com. (MS)