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Comment by larusso | Hacker News Reader

I really like the idea. I also grew up in a household with tons of physical media to explore. I still have my blue ray collection but it’s mainly sitting in the shelf because I honestly don’t know what else to put there.

But I’m wondering reading all the comments from people doing something similar with alternative products etc how they do this legally? I mean I can’t just download stuff from Apple Music and play it offline on some random player. Same with most other streaming providers. Or are you accepting the greyzone here by saying you pay for the service so it doesn’t matter? Or are you happily buying all the content on some other medium / drm free stores to put them on these alternatives players? I specifically mean solutions where one needs some form of copy of the files.

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I use Apple Music and have made a very similar setup to the article. Instead of the NFC pointing to a Plex URL, I have it trigger an Automation to play the relevant album on Apple Music. Works well, plays instantly, feels magical, and most of all it's got rid of the 'what should I listen to' friction so I now find my home is filled with music way more often. Downside of this approach is it only works on my own phone.

This article (not mine) explains the Apple Music/Automation approach – https://hicks.design/journal/moo-card-player

There are still legitimate options to buy media and download mp3.

Yes I know. But audiobooks bought are way more expensive than getting them from audible with the credit system over the course of one year for instance. I used to buy my albums rather than having a streaming service subscription. But I sadly caved in. I just wonder if all who report they do this for they kids etc really go out and buy all these great records and audiobooks etc. because for me there is a reason to have a subscription. An album on iTunes costs roughly 10€. For that I can listen a whole month to whatever album. Sure the album is somewhat mine when I purchase it (definitely when bought on a physical medium). At the moment I purchase my favorite movies digital even though I could watch them on Netflix and co.

It seems to me like this is more about nostalgia than current music. I'm considering doing something similar with my cd collection which is original from the 90s/00s with some back catalogue 60s-90s stuff thrown in. I listen to most modern music via streaming, but still buy the odd new release album that really matters to me (literally one or two a year).

I’ve ripped a bunch of cds which I think is not technically legal here but I have no moral issue, an we’d bought some.

Other than that with setups like music assistant you can stream from these services, it’s just a different trigger. I know that’s not quite what you asked but it’s a clean solution to play on the speakers you’d already stream on.

Why get hung up on the legality of something like this, assuming you're just going to use it for personal use in your home?

It's not morally wrong to take music you pay for and use it in a perfectly reasonable - and fun - way.

Well because at least from a German perspective one can get in lots of troubles when going the non legal way. Of course the question is how you do it etc etc. my question was if in fact people go the greyzone or start to purchase from alternative sources instead of using streaming services.

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