Ask HN: Play music remotely for my Dad

Posted by curiousfiddler on Saturday November 19, 2016 @07:21PM
from the ask-hn dept.

Hi all,

I wanted to get some ideas from you all on the best way to do this. My dad is suffering from Parkinson's disease and lives in a different country (I live in San Francisco currently). He absolutely loves music. However, his caregivers are unaware of his music taste and in fact also don't have a good music collection or access to Spotify etc to play music that my Dad will enjoy. I have seen music soothes him while he sleeps and I wish I could play a good playlist for him from here. Can you think of a good solution?

Thanks in advance!

( 8 comments | 4 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Play music remotely for my Dad by cauterized on Saturday November 19, 2016 @10:20PM (#12997065)

Why not get him a tiny cheap media center PC or chromebook or such? You could probably even do this with a Raspberry Pi. Hook it up to a nice set of PC speakers. Set up remote access to it for yourself.

Then you can either download a selection of music to it or set it up to play from a streaming service just as you would on your own PC. If your dad wants to turn it on or off (or the caretakers need to), he can use the volume/power knob on the speakers.

Or if he likes a popular genre of music (classical? Classic rock?), maybe just get him an FM radio?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Play music remotely for my Dad by linux-modder on Saturday November 19, 2016 @07:25PM (#12996537)

Are either of you familar with kodi or remote access /streaming via ssh ? If so one simple option would be to setup a ssh tunnel thru to a music store on your network and have him connect to it via key (preferred) or passphrase ( less preferred for security but doable). that way you would be able to update and / or curate playlists and or even allow him to remotely access a pandora /spotify account form your network / IP and not be technically voilating ToS.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Play music remotely for my Dad by dyeje on Sunday November 20, 2016 @12:42PM (#13000003)

Considering there's no one technical on the other end to set stuff up, your best bet might just be to mail him a simple stereo and weekly mixed CDs.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Play music remotely for my Dad by kejaed on Saturday November 19, 2016 @09:00PM (#12996868)

Can you load up a cheap tablet with songs and send that to the caretakers to press play?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Play music remotely for my Dad by gt2 on Sunday November 20, 2016 @03:38AM (#12997918)

not sure if it still is the case, but last time I checked logging into Spotify from a second account begins to control the other logged in account, complete with stopping and starting play.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Play music remotely for my Dad by lwithers on Sunday November 20, 2016 @12:10PM (#12999837)

This is still the case. If you login to the same Spotify account on multiple devices, you can choose which device to play on, even if you're not on the same network.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Play music remotely for my Dad by user7878 on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @03:21AM (#13012562)

Remote access like team viewer etc

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Play music remotely for my Dad by qwertyuiop924 on Sunday November 20, 2016 @05:58AM (#12998246)

Sounds like a job for Icecast to me.

[ Parent | on HN ]