> expecting people to pay $200 for the opportunity to ruin their favorite music is a steep ask.
The Stem Player would've been nice as a mobile app, but at $200 it's a very expensive piece of e-waste.
If you gave me 4 mp3s I would be reasonably confident I could make something like that as a one off for $200. I can only assume a lot of money has gone into DRM.
I think it's just large markups - DRM wise I don't think there is any as a simple userscript was apparently enough to simulate the presence of the player to the website and download his latest album.
So this thing is a $200 iPod shuffle in 2022?
This appears far more gimmicky than a shuffle. The shuffle was great for working out. This thing requires an internet connection just to transfer local music to it.