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.
Probably a bit hard to justify the price for this purpose, but there are a few really high end dedicated music players out there that run Android. I know Sony make one, and I believe some of the Fiio players run Android too.
I use a Fiio M6 to run Spotify, by downloading playlists through my home wifi before going out. It’s not the cheapest option, but I’ve had it since before the pandemic and it still works like a charm.
The device comes with an app to play MP3s, so that should work easily as well.
bunch of not that high end dedicated music players when I looked on amazon just now - around the $40 - $70 price range