This Custom Jukebox Uses Swipeable Song Cards to Play Tunes

Digital streaming services are leading the charge when it comes to music consumption these days, but that doesn’t mean that some folks out there don’t want something a bit more physical in their lives.

That’s the case here, with designer Chris Patty building something pretty remarkable. It’s a small jukebox, custom-built by Patty for a holiday gift for his father. The family decided that they should give handmade gifts this year, and Patty saw a window to create something pretty special. The whole thing is deceptively simple, too: There’s a Raspberry Pi inside the box itself, and Patty created his own software to run on the hardware.

Songs are stored locally on an SD card inside the box, and each one is pulled up when a custom-made swipeable card, with a magnetic stripe similar to a credit card, is swiped. Here, you can check it out in action in the video that Patty uploaded to Twitter:

Patty told The Verge that the “limitless libraries” of services like Apple Music and Spotify “cheapen the experience” of listening to music, and this more tactile method makes it a bit more personal:

“I think [the response] speaks to a shared displeasure with the current state of our music services,” Patty tells The Verge in an email. The limitless libraries inside Apple Music and Spotify cheapen the experience, he says. “There’s something about the limiting factors of physical media that force you to choose … the music that is most meaningful. And that kind of curation, I think, is something we all deeply miss.”

Patty has confirmed that he is working on an open source version of the software, along with detailed instructions, so that fans of this idea can build their own custom jukebox. As for the cards? Patty printed glossy labels and attached them to each card, and says that it has “the same sheen as the cards so you actually can’t even tell”. Each card has its own pre-set ID as well, which allows for the software to connect to a specific song based on that individual identification tag.

The gift has been a hit, according to Patty:

“My parents own a Google home and have Spotify accounts,” Patty says, “but in the days since I gave my dad this gift, it’s been used far more than their streaming services.”

What do you think of this? It is a pretty awesome idea, especially with the swipeable cards.

[via The Verge]

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