Homemade Raspberry Pi Jukebox Uses Physical Cards for Music Selection

One could argue that the state of music listening — with streaming services giving us access to a nearly limitless array of choices — has never been better. On the other hand, there is something satisfying about owning an album, and physically grabbing it from a stack of media, an experience that is lost in this virtual shuffle.

Designer Chris Patty has some up with a solution to this dilemma — a music player housed in a nicely finished block of wood that uses cards to select the song. Users pick a card with the single to be played out of one of two rectangular card holders, then swipe it through a mag-stripe reader slot. This type of card was chosen over the NFC variety to save costs, though according to Patty, it’s actually quite satisfying to swipe cards like this. Cleverly, the art on the cards is pulled from Spotify with a custom user interface, then printed as stick-on labels.

Under the nicely carved wooden “hood,” the system features a speaker powered by a Raspberry Pi, with songs stored locally. Patty discusses the jukebox on Twitter, including a short clip of it in action. He even reveals that he’s planning to make it open source, and will do a Kickstarter for the device for those that are less DIY-inclined.

[h/t: The Verge]