A selfie mic is an extendable stick with a wired microphone and an earpiece in the handle, made so a kid could clamp a phone to it and film themselves performing. It was a 2016 gift-season hit, and it is not a toy-aisle staple anymore. Knowing where to buy one now means knowing which channel still has stock. Two things matter before you buy: the singalong feature depended on a third-party app, and the hardware connects through a headphone jack most phones no longer have.
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Who Actually Needs One of These
The SelfieMic is a telescoping selfie stick with a spring-loaded phone holder and a wired handset, sold for kids who wanted to record karaoke videos on a smartphone. Moose Toys, the Australian company behind Shopkins, made it. Clamp a phone in, connect the handset, open the partner app, and perform over a backing track by whichever artist the catalogue offered.
It landed at the right moment. Lip-sync clips were the dominant kid format, the marketing name-dropped tracks made famous by Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, and YouTube unboxing videos carried it. The brand announced a spot on the Dream Toys top-12 Christmas list for 2016.
Three groups still want one: collectors replacing a childhood item, parents whose child saw it in an old clip, and people who want a cheap handheld mic and do not care what the box says.
Buying Criteria: What Separates a Good Singalong Mic From a Bad One
The most important check is physical, not electronic: does the connector fit your phone, and will that phone pass mic signal back through the adapter?
The 3.5mm jack problem. This is a wired accessory. Apple dropped the 3.5mm jack with the iPhone 7 in 2016, the same year the set launched, and most Android flagships followed. No jack means an adapter, and cheap USB-C dongles are frequently output only, so they play audio and pass no mic input.
TRRS versus TRS. A connector carrying both output and mic input needs four contacts, called TRRS, wired to the CTIA pinout. A three-contact TRS plug plays sound and records nothing. Count the black rings before you buy an adapter.
App dependency. The song catalogue was never on the device. It lived in StarMaker, a separate social singing platform the brand partnered with, and the box shipped with a printed token code. Hardware whose headline feature is a login and a download has an expiry date.
Monitoring and sound quality. You get one bud on a short lead, not a stereo pair and not a true in-ear monitor. Tracking your own pitch on a single tinny driver while music fights you is hard. If fidelity matters, buy a real pair of headphones.
Clamp width and screen size. The holder was sized for 2016 handsets, so measure your phone with the case on. A thick shell or a 6.7-inch screen can exceed the jaw travel, and pulling a bulky phone case off every time gets old. The pole flexes at full extension, and flex reads as camera shake on video.
Red Flags When Shopping for a Used SelfieMic
The expensive mistake is paying a collector premium for sealed packaging, then finding the software half no longer behaves the way the carton promises.
Treating the bundled token code as a live feature. Sealed boxes from 2016 and 2017 hold a printed code for a third-party service. Assume it is dead. Platforms change owners, pricing, and age gates, and nobody can vouch for a code from a nine-year-old carton.
Assuming a child can use every advertised feature. In 2016 the Children’s Advertising Review Unit, the child-advertising arm of BBB National Programs, recommended the maker modify advertising that implied under-13s could use all features tied to the age-gated platform. The published decision is still online.
Buying an unbranded lookalike. Generic sticks with a mic glued to the handle flooded marketplaces at the time. They share every wiring problem above with no partner platform behind them.
Skipping the adapter math. Buyers order the set, hit the jack problem, order a random dongle, and find it records silence. Work out the connector and the pinout first, or $20 turns into three shipments and a return.
Buying One Locally: Store by Store
Walk-in stock is unlikely. This left mainstream planograms years ago, and where it turns up it is closeout or party-supply inventory. Call before you drive.
Walmart
Walmart, the largest brick-and-mortar chain in the United States, carried the set during its run, and the item numbers still resolve on their website. The store-availability toggle there answers the pickup question in one click.
Target
Target listed it under the maker’s name rather than as a phone accessory, which is where to search when the store app returns nothing. Availability hinges on residual inventory, so check the Target listing and the store-stock filter.
Best Buy
Best Buy filed it as a mobile phone accessory rather than a plaything, a habit worth copying for any tech-adjacent gadget you cannot find. Check the Best Buy product page for status.
Michaels and closeout channels
Craft and party chains absorb discontinued stock long after big-box retailers drop it, often at clearance pricing under $10. Michaels has listed the set, and Oriental Trading, the party and novelty supplier, has carried it in their catalogue, where multipack pricing turns up.
Buying Online: Retailer Comparison
Online is where this lives now, split between marketplace listings for new-in-box units and ordinary secondhand resale. Resale is cheaper and often the only route.
| Channel | What you find | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | New and used, black and pink | Sellers set their own return terms |
| eBay | Sealed boxes, single colours, lots | Collector pricing on sealed stock |
| Mercari | Opened and used, cheapest tier | Missing bud or missing holder |
| Poshmark | Occasional gift-condition listings | Photos rarely show the handset |
Amazon is the easiest first stop, with both colours across new and used listings. Read the seller name rather than the star rating, because returns differ by seller on a discontinued item. On eBay, sort by price plus shipping, then open the photos and confirm the token card is still sealed in the tray.
At the bottom of the market, search Mercari or check Poshmark, where opened units sell for less than sealed ones. Ask for a photo of the handset and the earpiece, since those two parts go missing first. The brand ran a storefront during the product’s life, but a site for a retired line is not a live inventory source.
What People Are Saying About the Selfie Mic Music Set
Sentiment splits cleanly: the hardware met expectations for a sub-$30 gadget, the software did not.
Independent toy review sites, among them The Toy Insider and The Guide For Toys, reached broadly the same verdict. Sound was acceptable for the price, setup took minutes, and kids came back to it rather than abandoning it after a weekend.
The complaints all point at the partner app. Reviewers flagged long unskippable ads, some poorly matched to a young audience, and described lag between the backing track and the recording. The token economy drew the sharpest criticism: bundled tokens ran out quickly, and unlocking the wider catalogue meant grinding through takes to earn more.
That is why the code warning matters more than cosmetic condition. A pristine handset with a token card that no longer redeems is a stick with a microphone on it.
Best Alternatives Right Now
These five cover the two jobs the original did: a karaoke toy a child can sing into, and clean voice audio for a creator. Ranges were checked in September 2026.
Best overall replacement: BONAOK Bluetooth karaoke microphone. A handheld body with the speaker in the barrel, so it pairs to a phone and amplifies whatever you already play. No jack, no adapter, no code to expire. Point the barrel away from the phone speaker to avoid feedback squeal. Roughly $25 to $40. Check price on Amazon
Best budget: Boya BY-M1 clip-on lavalier. A wired omnidirectional lapel mic on a long cable, the usual entry point for phone and camera voice work. Confirm the connector matches your device, since it ships with a 3.5mm plug. Around $15 to $25. See it on Amazon
Best for phone video: Rode SmartLav+. Built around the TRRS wiring phones expect, which removes the biggest failure point in this category. Broadcast-grade capsule in a fingernail-sized clip. Roughly $60 to $80. Check current pricing
Best wireless: DJI Mic Mini. A transmitter clip and a receiver that drops onto the phone, so nothing tethers you to a handset. This is the category behind the question about the little mic influencers use. Roughly $90 to $170 by kit. See current listings
Best stick pairing: tripod selfie stick plus a separate lavalier. Combined stick-and-mic units are rare now, so buy the halves separately. A tripod stick with a Bluetooth shutter button frees both hands, which the original never managed. Sticks run $15 to $30. Browse the selection
For a gift exchange rather than daily use, the handheld Bluetooth option is the safer buy, and our gift-exchange roundup covers the same bracket.
How to check one will work with your phone
- Look for a 3.5mm headphone jack on your phone. If it has one, a wired unit connects straight in.
- No jack? Identify the port instead. Lightning on older iPhones, USB-C on everything current.
- Buy an adapter that explicitly states microphone or TRRS support. Output-only dongles record silence.
- Test it before wrapping it. Record ten seconds of speech and play it back, because a returned adapter beats a disappointed kid.
Start with step one, because it decides everything else. If your phone has a jack and you want the 2016 original, buy used and treat the bundled code as worthless. If there is no jack, skip it and pick up a Bluetooth handheld or a wireless lavalier, because a selfie mic built for a jack is a poor fit for a phone without one.
Selfie Mic Questions, Answered
Does the bundled singalong app still work?
Assume it does not. StarMaker is an independent social singing platform, not something the manufacturer controlled, and its catalogue, age gate, and pricing have shifted since 2016. The hardware needs no download to work as a mic and earpiece. Treat any printed token code as expired until you redeem it yourself.
Will a wired mic like this work with a modern phone or a PC?
Only with the right adapter. iPhones from the 7 onward have no 3.5mm jack, and no iOS update changes that, since it is a hardware omission. You need a Lightning or USB-C adapter rated for headset use, not a plain audio-out dongle. On a desktop tower with separate pink and green ports, a four-pole connector needs a TRRS splitter; laptops with a single combo jack usually work directly.
What is the little mic that influencers use?
A wireless lavalier system. A transmitter clips to the shirt, a receiver drops onto the phone or camera, and the pair works at conversational distance with no cable. DJI and Rode dominate that category. Kits start around $60 and climb past $200 for dual-transmitter versions, a real step up from any singalong toy.
What is the 3 to 1 rule for microphones?
Place each mic three times as far from the other mic as it sits from its own source. The rule stops two mics capturing the same voice at slightly different moments, which thins the sound out. It matters here only if two people duet with two handsets, which is exactly when a cheap karaoke setup sounds worst.
What did the original set include, and what did it cost?
The retail box held an extendable pole, a phone holder, a wired handset with a single bud, and a printed token code, in black or pink. Shelf pricing sat in the $15 to $30 band while it was current. Sealed boxes on resale sites sometimes ask more, which is collector pricing rather than retail.
In September 2026, our editorial team re-verified retailer availability, resale channels, and the alternative picks in this guide.