I would like to build a music player / device for an older person, not tech savvy user.
I have the MP3s on my linux desktop/laptop, but not all the metadata and cover art.
I’ve worked with RPi before, jailbreaking iPhones and roku. So I have some limited experience with small devices.
I’m wondering if I could obtain some kind of old/used android phone, remove all the apps so the home screen is completely empty, transfer via USB or ssh/scp the MP3 files (and metadata + cover art), then have some kind of music player app which would be the only app on the phone/device.
Then shutdown any wifi or internet connectivity, but still allow bluetooth to pair with an external speaker.
Old iPods are coming into fashion because even younger folks are wanting something like this.
I would consider buying a refurbished iPod classic on eBay. Simple and elegant. User friendly. Do you really need the Bluetooth part?
The only issue with those is the price + modding the disk to SD card + restrictions on the number of songs the OS can handle and whatnot. They’re cool and great indeed but not as perfect as one would think.
Are you wanting to put songs in wav or flaac Format or something? I feel like a decently size used iPod wouldn’t be a whole lot more than $100 and 100 GB could hold 10,000 songs in high-quality 320 kB/s or so.
It sounds like you’re trying to build an iPod classic with Bluetooth
I DJ weddings for about 10 years and literally had my entire entire DJ library backed up on one
Yes FLAC and 10,000 isn’t that much. I also have an iPod Classic 6th gen and I love it, but the mechanical hard drive had to go, it eventually slowed down and made noise sometimes. The SD card mod made it way better, lighter, battery lasts longer, transferring songs also seems faster. If it weren’t for the 10k sound limitation I would be more than happy with it, no need for Bluetooth.