Selfie Mic: Where to Buy It Now and What to Buy Instead
A selfie mic is an extendable stick with a wired microphone and earpiece built in, 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. 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.
This page contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Who Actually Needs One of These
The SelfieMic, sold as the Selfie Mic Music Set, bolted three cheap parts together: a telescoping selfie stick, a spring-loaded phone holder, and a wired handset with a microphone capsule and one in-ear monitor. Moose Toys, the Australian company behind Shopkins, made it. Clamp a smartphone in, connect the handset, open the partner app, and perform over one of your favorite songs.
It landed at the right moment. Lip-sync video was the dominant kid format, the box was rated ages eight and up, and a wave of YouTube unboxing clips pushed it through two gift seasons. It won a NAPPA award.
Three groups still want one: collectors replacing a childhood item, parents whose kid saw it in an old clip, and people who just want a cheap handheld mic.
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 this 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 buying an adapter.
App dependency. The singalong catalogue was never on the device. It lived in StarMaker, a separate social platform the brand partnered with, and the box shipped with a token code for it. Hardware whose headline feature is a login has an expiry date.
Monitoring and sound quality. You get one bud on a short lead, not a stereo pair. Tracking your own pitch on a single tinny driver while a backing track 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 too, and flex reads as shake on video.
Red Flags Before You Buy a Used One
The expensive mistake is paying a collector premium for sealed packaging, then finding the software half no longer behaves the way the box 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. Software ecosystems 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 change advertising implying 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 then, sharing the wiring problems with no partner platform at all.
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 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 still 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, filed it under musical or kids electronics, not with the dolls. Most locations cycled it out long ago, but the item numbers still resolve on their website, the fastest way to see whether anything sits nearby for pickup.
Target
Target shelved it in creative-play and musical aisles. Availability hinges on residual store inventory, so check the Target listing and the store-stock toggle in their app first.
Best Buy
Best Buy stocked it as a mobile accessory, near phone cases and portable speakers rather than with the games. That is a habit worth keeping for tech-adjacent gadgets. 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. 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 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 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 fulfilment and returns differ by seller. On eBay, sort by price plus shipping and scan for “opened for photos”, which usually means the token card is exposed.
At the bottom of the market, search Mercari or check Poshmark, where parents clearing closets list them rather than resellers chasing margin. Ask for a photo of the handset and the earpiece, since those parts go missing. The brand’s storefront at the manufacturer’s old domain was the direct channel during the run, but a site for a retired line is not a live inventory source.
What People Are Saying About the SelfieMic Music Set
Sentiment splits cleanly: the hardware met expectations for a sub-$30 gadget, the software did not.
Independent review sites, among them The Toy Insider and The Guide For Toys, reached the same verdict. Sound was acceptable for the price, setup took minutes, and kids came back to it rather than abandoning it.
The complaints all point at the partner app. Reviewers flagged long unskippable ads, some judged unsuitable for the eight-and-up audience the box was sold to. There was audible lag between the backing track and the recording, with the music mixed loud enough to bury the vocal. The token economy drew the sharpest criticism: bundled tokens ran out fast, and unlocking the wider catalogue meant grinding through takes to earn points, which one reviewer estimated could take months.
That is why the code warning matters more than cosmetic condition. A pristine handset with a token card that no longer redeems is just a stick with a microphone on it.
Best Alternatives Right Now
These five cover the two use cases the original served: a child who wants a karaoke toy to sing into, and a creator who wants clean voice audio. Ranges were checked in July 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 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 designed for a jack is a poor fit for a phone without one.
Selfie Mic Questions, Answered
Does the StarMaker app still work with it?
Do not count on it. StarMaker is an independent social singing platform, not something the manufacturer controlled, and its features, age gate, and pricing have shifted since 2016. The hardware works as a mic and earpiece with nothing to download. Treat any printed token code as expired until you redeem it yourself.
Will it work on an iPhone with no headphone jack?
Only through an adapter that carries mic input, and iPhones from the 7 onward have no jack. 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. Apple’s own Lightning adapter passes mic signal; many third-party USB-C ones skip the analogue input path.
Can you use one with a PC?
Sometimes, with a splitter. Desktop towers usually have separate pink mic and green audio ports, so a four-pole connector needs a TRRS splitter to break out into two three-pole ones. Laptops with a single combo jack often work directly. The holder and pole are useless on a desktop, so you are using half the product.
Are these any good next to a modern lavalier?
No, and the gap is wide. A $20 clip-on lapel mic sits inches from your mouth and rejects room noise, while a handheld capsule on a pole picks up the whole room. Customer reviews from its own era praised the fun of making music videos, not the audio.
What did it originally include and cost?
The retail set held an extendable pole, a phone holder, a wired handset with a bud, and a printed code for tokens, in black or pink. Shelf pricing sat in the $15 to $30 band. Sealed boxes on resale sites sometimes ask more, which is collector pricing rather than retail.
In July 2026, our editorial team re-verified retailer availability, resale channels, and the alternative picks in this guide.