A mechanism for automatically controlling the power condition of a portable audio system. The mechanism of the illustrative embodiments determines whether a user is interacting with the portable audio player. If no user interaction with the portable audio player is detected, the mechanism of the illustrative embodiments determines whether the portable audio player is moving. If the portable audio player is not moving, an inactivity duration counter in the portable audio player is incremented to an incremented value. Responsive to a determination that the incremented value of the inactivity duration counter meets or exceeds a time duration threshold value, the mechanism of the illustrative embodiments change the power condition of the portable audio player by turning the portable audio player off.