Modern Day Record Player Tutorial (RFID, Spotify API, Python, and Raspberry Pi)

Thanks for watching the vid! Detailed blog & Github Repo for this vid:
Blog: talaexe.com/mo...
Github Repo: github.com/tal...
Materials:
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RFID RC522 Module with Soldered on Header Pins
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RFID Stickers (13.56MHz)
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Raspberry Pi 4
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Raspberry Pi 4 Power Supply
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Female to Female Dupont Jumper Wires
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Speakers (any work!)

[@nordemoniac]

Immediately from when this video started, I saw potential for something cool - a 3D-printed vinyl record that holds the NFC sticker underneath the labels, and a tiny motor to actually run the record, while the album art is placed at the side. At 33 rpm of course.

[@justbones.3501]

Did you end up trying this??

[@AdenGFX]

brilliant idea

[@luchoescobar]

Nice idea!!!

[@johnwiese5927]

Was thinking the same thing :)

[@dylanjohnmusic]

Haha i was thinking the exact same thing

[@bretthampton2050]

I just built this using a Raspberry Pi 3B+ and so far it is working great. I need to add more songs to my IF statments and may work on figuring an easier way to add new songs. Gives me something to play with. Great video and blog with super easy to follow directions. Everything I needed to do was there. Probably the first project like this I have done without running into issues. Thanks!!!!

[@cinderellasunderstudy2937]

Did you have to do anything different because of the different raspberries Pi model?

[@bretthampton2050]

@@cinderellasunderstudy2937 Sorry for the late reply. I just noticed this. I did not have to do anything different. I followed her directions and everything worked fine. I did get it working to read from a file so I don't have to build a long IF statement. I need to do a little more testing, but so far it works if you do things correctly. "the code works as long as you don't press this button". Haha

[@danielhaynes4747]

@@bretthampton2050 I know this is really outdated but what I did was made a function to actually write the album string to some ntag215's and then extract that when they are scanned. If there isn't already an album saved to the tag then I simply add the last album I played on my spotify.

[@M.rasmodius]

if anyones still here (lol) do you think this could run on a pi zero w?

[@letsgochamp2023]

You've done a great job with this! I've seen other projects that use RFID, but your presentation is incredible. The wooden box idea is fantastic. Thank you for sharing :)

[@kaojaicam]

So glad to see someone actually turn this into a real product. I've thought about the cards off and on for years, but doing it on a phone lacked some elegance. Seeing the hardware of a nice, inconspicuous wooden product really takes it to a next level. That said, what about this: - Cheap android phone (with headphone jack) Put it in a nice wooden enclosure flush with the screen, screen exposed. That way you've got both Aux and Bluetooth options, and relative ease of setup for both playing music directly through spotify, and even creation of new cards through apps like NFC Tools

[@Localss]

this is a very solid idea for the future of physical releases. Could be a great balance between supporting the artist and keeping the convenience of modern audio tech

[@madeofcastiron]

this is such a cool idea. i love the cute mini cutouts of the albums. i’m definitely gonna make this project. thank you for this tutorial!

[@aldoxmar538]

I love the stuff you do :) The explanation was super detailed!! Thank you for posting this

[@kauaa1492]

My music collector self would love if this was sold by artists/labels as official physical versions of albuns being sort of a digital download/mp3 system only needing a player table and speakers ... it'd be cheaper and cooler than CDs/vinyl and could come with more creative designs and also be more "useful" 😍💭 such a creative idea 👏

[@julien.2573]

It does exist in Japan ;)

[@connortaylor1870]

Sweet idea, however, an easy improvement would be to store a file that the python code reads in that houses all the RFID tags and corresponding URLS. Then you can look through that file instead of adding a ton of if-else statements! would make the code more readable, and make it easier to edit your album collection since you could also have a "Album name" section in the csv file or whatever you use to hold the album info!

[@gaugea]

what an awesome project idea, love how it captures the tactile property of physical media while sacrificing as little convenience as possible

[@johnwhite731]

This is absolutely awesome . I was looking to do something similar with samples. Keep up the good work!

[@dylanwhitehead1057]

Theoretically, could you add more parameters to make it more user-friendly? If this were given as a gift as the project sits now, the person would have to know how to add more code to add more songs. I propose the following solution: *1.* Make the list of songs and ID's a JSON file that can be automatically updated with RFID IDs and song numbers that the program can refer to in the code; that way, manually adding more songs or editing the music that's attached to each RFID is easier. *2.* Use an RFID Reader/Writer and a button that can be pushed to scan and read a new RFID and either change the ID of the RFID so that the IDs are sequential to the previously checked IDs and easier to read or have the program update the JSON file with the new ID. *3.* Have the program listen for a new song to be played manually after the RFID is scanned, take the ID of that song and attach it to the previously checked RFID. Thus creating a new _"Record."_ I have no idea if this can be done, at least in this way. I would love to make these as gifts, but I want to ensure it's user-friendly and new _"records"_ can be made on the user's side regardless of their coding ability. Let me know what you think 😁

[@zipkitty]

way to mansplain, lol

[@thesombral1505]

@@zipkitty He just gives ideas, which are mostly good, how is this mansplain?

[@magfal]

3 is good, might need a button to get the current song and bookmark it to the current RFID Could also be a special RFID card that acts as a button.

[@00Herobrine]

​@@magfal well I wrote up a better way to handle all of this and youtube decided to delete it thanks. So here is a quicker version: Have a JSON file of bound IDs, check if the RFID is in that JSON if not, start a pairing process where the next 30s-1m you can query spotify at an interval to check the currently played song, if it finds a song bind it to that ID, else cancel the pairing process. Unless there is a way to write some small bits of information onto the RFID card itself, then you could have the track id embedded on it.

[@nobytes2]

​@@thesombral1505because anytime a man speaks women thinks he's "mansplaining".

[@aldenloutit9790]

Just made it with an rpi 3. Thanks so much for doing this!

[@mariluzozuna1910]

was it any different doing it on the 3 than it was on the 4? im planning to do this with mine but i have the 3 as well.

[@aldenloutit9790]

@@mariluzozuna1910 Nope! Was the same all the way through.

[@mariluzozuna1910]

@@aldenloutit9790 sweet thanks!

[@DualWieldingDad]

I had this exact idea. Good to see a polished prototype

[@quequien2002]

I just saw the Yoto! video from Techmoan and the first thing i thought was cool idea but i bet a DYI version would be 100 times better and now I get this video recomended. The only difference would be to make it stop if the tag is removed, whitch would be like, you know, "playing" the record. Great Video!

[@pedropereira5043]

I have an old Pi 3B sitting around and a 1 1/2 yo daughter who loves music. I'll make her own jukebox so she can play her favourites whenever she wants!

[@ItsJayYork]

You're a real one for this, will try it

[@fujinshu]

This can be further expanded by adding RFID tags to physical releases of movies, TV shows and games to pull up their soundtracks. Just imagine getting your favourite game and tapping it on the box to listen to the soundtrack.

[@ahmadjo5757]

this is very old, but we need you back with more sick projects!

[@thesham2]

Dude this is amazing!!! I wanted to do something like this for a long time but didn't know how to go about it... Thank you

[@crixi__]

very clear instructions, very soothing voice, love it! Please continue making these tutorials :)

[@Whiskeyj456]

Ooh I want to make this for a friend but want it to be user friendly. Im going to attempt to create a web ui that let’s a user scan an rfid tag into a field, then paste in a Spotify url in order to quickly update a database storing all of the rfid tag IDs and Spotify tracks/albums. I might add basic playback controls to the box as well. Super cool idea with a great execution, I can’t wait to start a new project!

[@harrydawso]

So excited to make this! Been waiting since your tiktok 😊

[@talaexe]

Hope you like it!

[@harrydawso]

@@talaexe Hey Tala, I am going to make this for my grandparents. Just wondering, is there any way to make raspotify always on because the whole point is that they aren't very good at technology so I want them to be able to use this without a phone.

[@ashish5563]

@@harrydawso just make the application Run at boot and add another physical button to reboot the pi/ the program and that way is somehow the application stops, your grandparents just have to press that physical button

[@qiamudien]

I know a similar solution (phoniebox) i build for my kids. I love this kind of projects and saved your github link to recreate this project in future.

[@piraspberry4811]

gaaf gemaakt, en het werkt, goed voor het feestje van morgen oud en nieuw 2023, happy new year

[@saanvi5169]

Hii! I love the video, your idea was super cool and detailed!! Just one question: Do you need a Spotify Premium account, or can a regular Spotify account work just as well?

[@stapleton95]

I can't wait to change your music using the client id and secret.

[@mattyard1663]

Is there a way to store the Spotify track/album id on the RFID chip itself? For example, instead of having an “if else” statement for every track or album, (if id == this, then play this song) you could just have one statement that reads the Spotify id from the chip and inserts it into the context_uri variable directly?

[@jannis002]

You can write a text record to your RFID chip and read out this text instead (I do not know exactly how to do it with this api, but it is possible). In this case, the text could be the track id and the python program just inserts it: "spotify:track:"

[@Laurenhowerr]

yes, that's what I did!

[@benjamin1008]

That's what I did as well. Also, I programmed an rfid tag to write the current Spotify context to the next card presented, so the kids can "program" more cards without tinkering with the code.

[@mebulon1984]

@@benjamin1008 Hey, would you be willing to share your code? I'm very inspired by the idea and would like to build something like that for my kids as well :)

[@chaerne]

So i build this, a bit different but on base of your idea. But im asking myself can you like add buttons to the player for play, pause, skip, shuffle and that stuff?

[@OBRIENDCSD]

had that same idea

[@azza8645]

This is awesome! Just got mine working thanks to your video, really easy to follow instructions! Did you ever try it with Spotify playlists at all?

[@aldenloutit9790]

I did it - can even do personal playlists. Just replace the album tag w playlist in the if/else

[@SnappyScience]

This idea is brilliant! Just brilliant!

[@kenrock2]

Loving this project so much

[@matthewjames2833]

Really great tutorial, I am considering trying it out myself. However, please please please for anyone doing this don't ever show your API ID's, secret codes or any other details as plain text in console code or anywhere else. It's a bit more work but always be safe out there. Make use of some encryption or obviscation to hide these kinds of data. Most API providers have more info on their recommended security measures on their website.

[@kingwahib1145]

Great video! One thing though, I NEED to know what your "Arabic Bops" playlist looks like 😂

[@dylanjohnmusic]

sick tutorial, thanks so much!

[@4n.v4n]

Hi, just a question, is it possible to add a screen to the raspberry pi to show current song playing also???

[@username980]

This is sick!! Saw it on TikTok and had to check out the video. Do you know if it would work using an Arduino Uno instead of a Raspberry Pi? Or would the fact the Arduino is only a microcontroller make things too complicated?

[@_STRIKEMEDIA_]

You would need a way to connecto to the internet, thus making the Spotify API implementation way harder than you might thought

[@64-bit63]

​@@_STRIKEMEDIA_ you could run the Spotify api on the tablet and use serial to communicate the info to the tablet

[@Peterstarzynskitech]

I would not be surprised if this is the future of music.

[@armyperson59]

ive been wanting to do something like this except the RFID is in my actual record sleeve and i would scan it when i put one on, which would display info about the currently playing album

[@pl46u3]

1:50, those solders look nice

[@SpaceAgeWolf]

Could there be a way to make this an offline device; I believe just loading a usb with songs and modifying the program to fetch then audio file when the rfid card is scanned but I’m unsure. Also could that still account for playlist?

[@Rustaceann]

Just here because I saw Cradles in the thumbnail 😂. Cool project!

[@coolduder1001]

Holy shit this is what I wanted to make for my grandma. The only issue is trying to figure out what service to use. I wanted to make something really easy to understand for anyone but also let you use any video on KZbin or file on local storage to make it easy. The biggest problem is trying to find a service no ads, or managing the internal storage easier. Basically just have the box talk to KZbin. Then using a phone and an app you could touch the nfc tag and program it with a video or playlist link. If it was local storage based I guess you could have the pi run a webserver interface and you can organize playlists and albums from there and use the box itself to write onto the tags. I wanted my box to basically be a simple minimalist radio with a single speaker and volume knob. Maybe make a second one that's hooked up to an actual stereo.

[@benjamincontrerascoloma8393]

I have a question this proyect can make it with a arduino r3?

[@afiqahmj]

ah i wish i found this for my final year project inspiration

[@jimmythepagina7989]

this is fantastic, amazing job with this video. very impressive!!!

[@kaoutarbouzari5736]

absolutely love this! notification bell on!

[@glomommy7656]

Is there a way to have the RF ID play songs that you would store on the micro sd in the raspberry pi? I would love to make that I didn’t have to have a Spotify or have any online connection. Some thing that could just pull locally from my little raspberry.

[@mastertoru5531]

This is a great video and neat invention!! Can I know how u learned how to do these kind of stuff? (Did you learn the electronics in school? - seeing that you know how to connect the different pins on the RFID reader to the corresponding pins on the RPi)

[@maidbloke]

Great project and superbly explained. Well done.

[@nya4198]

incredible tutorial, was an enjoyment to follow

[@noahjoes]

Such a cool idea, well done!

[@dottied5596]

This is amazing 😍 cant wait to try this myself

[@TheKeithchiu]

this looks like fun project! will this work on a raspberry pi 2 as well?

[@zoeyzheng4897]

my fav tech guru

[@jackmatheus]

I loved the idea. I’m not into the raspberry thing, but ill try this sometime. Also: the code could be a bit better. And you should implement something to add/create new Albums. Like doing an put method to feed an vector (I don’t know if this exists in English, i mean the x[1,2,3] thing)

[@drewaurioles3958]

Do you think a ras pi 3 would work for this?

[@maxreyes7229]

IVE HAD THIS IDEA FOR SO LONG. The tiny record covers to the wood box! 😔

[@wordsofarebel5704]

Great tutorial, very informative, thank you!

[@jordan3636]

It would be cool to make a little record shop diorama with action figures as employees and shoppers. You can then actually physically crate dig and put it on the record player in the record shop.

[@hunterpower6015]

I remember seeing this on tiki's Tok and I wanna make one. Thanks for uploading thes video!

[@mrjb_8032]

I love the idea and the video but I was wonder is there was a way to use the cards to skip and rewind songs with the cards or even buttons?

[@realdonutking123]

instead of using a new elif statement for each song/album you wanna add, could you use a dictionary where the key is the rfid sticker’s id, and the value is the context uri for what you want it to play? i was just thinking about that while watching the video

[@NathanShantz]

Liked the video after 10 seconds! I neeeeed this!!!

[@IncendiarySolution]

This is a really cool project

[@davidmejia9145]

Sooo excited!

[@donte5589]

It seems you can also do playlist by changing the line sp.start_playback(device_id="", context_uri='spotify:playlist:putplaylisturihere')

[@sayjexton]

this is literally so cool

[@aviralshastri]

also we can add a gear motor to give retro look and it wil help in rotating the rfid tag

[@pinklionbst45]

Interesting project for fun, thanks 👍

[@_L.L.]

Great idee. Do you have also a version for iTunes?

[@ΙωάνναΓ-χ9λ]

When I try to play one of my own playlists, it doesn't respond but it does when i play random ones. Does anyone know why could this be happening?

[@jogewe]

Wow, that's an awesome idea! Great Video too

[@Eingebuttert]

Can you tell me an another time how to get the token,because the website has changed an i don‘t now how i get it ?

[@harrisonodonnell5646]

i know this video is about a year old now, but commenting in case someone can help. does the rpi have to be the device providing the audio output? or could you use your other spotify enabled devices as audio output?

[@hheitzman]

25:23 Haven’t tried it myself, but I would guess you could just pass in the other device id, as the code presented first switches to the provided device id (sp.transfer_playback), then starts the track with device id passed in too (sp.start_playback)

Is this inspired by a board game called DropMix? It was made by Harmonix, authors of the Rock Band video game series. You would have a board with 5 card readers and cards with various songs. You would connect the board to your phone and it would automatically make mash ups based on the cards present. One cool thing is it you could stack cards, it would always read the last present card.

[@judyvsworld]

this is awesome!

[@MakeItHackin]

excellent tutorial!

[@NigelSeabourne]

Not sure if you are still keeping track off this project, i've just spent 3 days trying to build this project using a raspberry pi 4 with Bullseye OS. Cannot get it to work i cannot get the rfid stickers to scan. please help. Nigel

[@ghostman3329]

Awesome ,good work 👏💯

[@oussamabenmazhar5365]

great explanation !! 👏👏

[@haileyhunt7489]

So cool! If you ever make a kit let me know I would love to buy it!

[@lthrdoublee]

I've installed raspotify using rpi 2b and it is not visible from my laptop or phone. I'm guessing it doesn't work with old rpi models? and since my rpi 2b is connected via lan cable, maybe raspotify only works over wifi?

[@neoflix59]

Where did you go. Your 2 videos are great. You shoul be making loads more

[@JeyaganeshNarayanaswamy]

Cool implementation 👍. Can’t wait till Spotify decides to remove a song due to licensing and the song never plays 😂

[@joejoe6949]

Can you have play back on a Sonos and not on the pi. But have the pi do everything else ?

[@pergee]

can i use youtube music instead of Spotify?

[@jarvinIV]

One crazy thing that could be cool is to have it on gake vynils and make the vinyls float magnetically. Useless but futuristic...

[@reese6871]

Do i even need the ipad if i connect my speakers straight to the raspberry pie?

[@SH0RELESS]

My rfid doesn't find the card..

[@lindseym6534]

Okay, I'm stuck again. Raspotify appeared to be a success download but it doesn't show up in spotify as an option. I'm only see the web player.

[@keanojones9813]

Amazing video!

[@ProjectCJ8co]

This just go set up in my house works grate. The onlything is i am wondring if it works with sonos this is because i have thease all through my house and if it would work that would be wonerful. if not it woks fine as it just a way to improve :)

[@maximkonechno8742]

Imagine 5 years later you want to listen your favourite song and Spotify lost licence for it. Must be fun.

[@gageohman4242]

omg this video is so good i love it but one question: how do you know which wires to plug into which GPIO pin?

[@talaexe]

thank you!!:) can you explain what you mean?

[@orisingtide6566]

I was wondering if I could recreate this project on my raspberry pi 3b, or if i need to get the newer model raspberry pi 4

[@7Enea90]

Hello and thank you for this great tutorial. Is it possible to use this project without a screen? How can I boot up the RPI and use directly the RFID Reader?

[@Laurenhowerr]

I'm wondering the same thing!

[@alexandrecornish4929]

Hey great video! One question, would it be possible to connect the raspberry Pi to a smart speaker such as google or alexa for it to play on there?

[@OBRIENDCSD]

had that same question let me know if you get a reply

[@fnuker4002]

hello, thank you for cool tutorial. But does anybody have issue with disconnecting raspberry from spotify after you hit play? 13:10 part in video

[@aqua_hall2125]

Awesome video! One question: Is it possible to add wireless speakers for this project?

[@_STRIKEMEDIA_]

Yes, the RPi can connect to wireless speakers via Bluetooth