Hey all,
Loving HA for a long time, but I’m having trouble ‘adapting’ to the music streaming age, and I would like suggestions from the community for my use case 
The situation: a family of 4 people (2 adults, 1 teenager and a 6y old) listening to a single music library in multiple rooms, and on their phones individually.
The wish:
- a music streaming solution
- that allows each individual to add music to the central library and
- that allows for multiroom playback of each individual’s playlist,
- as well as a smart playlist that combines them.
- Allow for centralised ‘search and queue next’ accessible from all Android phones.
- Allow for individual playback on each phone simultaneously.
- Allow for phone control of a central jukebox machine that can play independently
- Allow playback to be controlled by HA automations (of course!)
- Ideally mix in local music as well.
My setup has been ‘ok’ until the last Android update:
- I have an old mac mini that runs Apple Music as the central library
- Multiroom playback through airplay devices (WiiM pucks)
- Apple Music allows for multiple devices to play at the same time through the same account
- Airplay, playlist selection and playback is controlled from HA through ‘itunes-api’ (which is limited) and
- additionally ‘search and queue next’ from an ‘iTunes remote’ app called Retune not updated since 2014 and not compatible with Android 14
- Individual playback and curating from the Apple Music android app
The point of the central jukebox is we have music playing most of the time and anyone might leave at any time and it shouldn’t affect playback at home. Someone should be able to tap into the library when he leaves, without breaking playback at home. I want to be able to queue up a song in the jukebox when it comes up in a conversation, and have the music stop when I start watching tv. I want to add music to the library when I read or hear about something on my phone.
I’m investigating a Spotify solution, but so far it’s been painful.
Any suggestions out there? Inspiration? How do you manage family music?
Thanks!
