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Spotify Box

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Re: Spotify Box

#41

Post by paxys »

dvsfish wrote: post #37
paxys wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bluetooth is terrible for music streaming. - Your phone has to be connected the entire time - Quality is flaky - It has to stay in range - You have to manually disconnect/reconnect it every time - You can't take calls while playing music - Only one person/phone can connect to the speaker at a time - It drains battery Having the speaker stream directly from the internet while having your phone (or multiple phones, or…

I'm no fan of bluetooth for music, but wouldn't an internet connected speaker also drain battery? And are you really wanting to simultaneously take a call and listen to music? Will the person on the other end appreciate that? Seems like an inconsequential limitation to me. Fully agree with your other points. And they're enough on their own.

It would not drain your phone battery. The speaker is almost always going to be plugged in anyways. And stepping into another room to take a call while others are listening to music isn't all that uncommon.

Re: Spotify Box

#42

Post by luxurytent »

mikewave wrote: post #13

For anyone else who wants to do this, just set up the absolutely amazing Volumio on your RPi or any other computer. https://volumio.org/ The web app is great for use in your house, the Spotify plugin is first class - it's supported as a target in your Spotify app, or you can browse straight from the webapp, which means even a guest on your wifi can easily pop on and help pick the music.

What kind of audio output does a raspberry pi support?

Re: Spotify Box

#43

Post by bjacobt »

As someone who is working on an embedded project - I just want to say, this is very impressive. I didn’t understand half of it, but you’ve given me enough to research.

Not sure if this helps, but I’m paying $75 per hour to do bits of what you’ve have done here.

Re: Spotify Box

#44

Post by smoldesu »

briandoll wrote: post #2

I was wondering what the advantage is to building something like this, compared to just using a bluetooth adapter that connects via RCA cables (like this box does). I suppose one advantage is that if you walk far away from your stereo, you can loose bluetooth connection and drop audio, where this device has it's own WiFi connection and pulls Spotify audio directly, and is just manually controlled via your phone.

Scary anecdote: I was at the Verizon store, and the clerk attending to me was getting really hung up on some stupid allegory about L Ron Hubbard and phone salesmanship, so I started reading the news until he tired himself out. I swiped down into my status bar and saw my Spotify widget was playing something, so I paused it assuming that it was just me leaving it on at home. A few moments later, it was playing again, and someone on the other end repeatedly fought me for it. I ended up ditching our friendly salesman and resetting my password in the parking lot, but it's still one of those Orwellian moments that reminds me of the scale of the internet.

Re: Spotify Box

#45

Post by vgel »

dvsfish wrote: post #37
paxys wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bluetooth is terrible for music streaming. - Your phone has to be connected the entire time - Quality is flaky - It has to stay in range - You have to manually disconnect/reconnect it every time - You can't take calls while playing music - Only one person/phone can connect to the speaker at a time - It drains battery Having the speaker stream directly from the internet while having your phone (or multiple phones, or…

I'm no fan of bluetooth for music, but wouldn't an internet connected speaker also drain battery? And are you really wanting to simultaneously take a call and listen to music? Will the person on the other end appreciate that? Seems like an inconsequential limitation to me. Fully agree with your other points. And they're enough on their own.

> And are you really wanting to simultaneously take a call and listen to music? Will the person on the other end appreciate that? Seems like an inconsequential limitation to me.

You could be hosting a party, for example, and want to leave the room to take a call without interrupting the music.

Re: Spotify Box

#46

Post by smoldesu »

If you want to do something like this at home, I fully encourage you to try it out! It's an afternoon project if you've got an old laptop laying around, bonus points if you know your way around Unix. The key software component here is spotifyd, a Spotify daemon for any Linux boxes. So if you have a spare Raspberry Pi/Laptop/Smart Fridge that you'd like to bless with Spotify superpowers, it's really only a few keystrokes to set up!

Re: Spotify Box

#47

Post by smoldesu »

bjacobt wrote: post #43

As someone who is working on an embedded project - I just want to say, this is very impressive. I didn’t understand half of it, but you’ve given me enough to research. Not sure if this helps, but I’m paying $75 per hour to do bits of what you’ve have done here.

Just curious: which bits? If you're hemmed up on the sysops side, I've got you covered ;)

Re: Spotify Box

#48

Post by tyre »

deeblering4 wrote: post #3

If you are in the apple ecosystem an airport express provides a similar feature set (airplay to analog stero line out) and can output to multiple airports (in different rooms) simultaneously. Granted its not as headless. a iDevice (or airplay compatible source) needs to be running. I have analog stereos in a few rooms and the airport express provides a nice way for anyone in the house to cast music from whatever app…

One major issue is that Spotify for Mac doesn't work with AirPlay. It's confounding. They refuse to build it.

Spotify has also refused to integrate with HomePod. The options are either stream all audio output, download something like AirFoil to stream only a single app (inconvenient, not friendly for non-technical users), or switch to Apple Music.

Re: Spotify Box

#49

Post by ct0 »

hammock wrote: post #20
briandoll wrote: post #2

I was wondering what the advantage is to building something like this, compared to just using a bluetooth adapter that connects via RCA cables (like this box does). I suppose one advantage is that if you walk far away from your stereo, you can loose bluetooth connection and drop audio, where this device has it's own WiFi connection and pulls Spotify audio directly, and is just manually controlled via your phone.

It's Chromecast Audio, but for Spotify.

Exactly what it looks like, pretty cool. My Denon receiver has this built in. AVR-3600H, I love it and can send music from my phone, and still use the remote for the reciever. Song and title is displayed on the tv, it I turn it on.

Re: Spotify Box

#50

Post by ct0 »

smoldesu wrote: post #44
briandoll wrote: post #2

I was wondering what the advantage is to building something like this, compared to just using a bluetooth adapter that connects via RCA cables (like this box does). I suppose one advantage is that if you walk far away from your stereo, you can loose bluetooth connection and drop audio, where this device has it's own WiFi connection and pulls Spotify audio directly, and is just manually controlled via your phone.

Scary anecdote: I was at the Verizon store, and the clerk attending to me was getting really hung up on some stupid allegory about L Ron Hubbard and phone salesmanship, so I started reading the news until he tired himself out. I swiped down into my status bar and saw my Spotify widget was playing something, so I paused it assuming that it was just me leaving it on at home. A few moments later, it was playing again, a…

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