OK, this is just FYI—my clip+ was playing and the songs kept breakin & scratching----I thought the songs were messed up on loading them. —well ,–I was gonna format them and reload —but, thought I would try 1 more thing.—changed the headphones from ear plugs to a set of headphones, and “wala” no more breakin and scratchin.—so—the ear plugs were messed up. just my 2 cents
Or it might just have been that the earphones plug wasn’t pushed far enough into the jack to be fully seated. The headphone jacks on new units can sometimes be extremely tight and one has to twist and/or push harder than normal to get the plug all the way in. 
Give the earphones another try.
