brendan dawes creates a playful analog interface for digital music

according to buzzangle music’s 2016 yearly report, the percentage of paid subscription streams are rising at a rapid rate. in 2015, 62% of all music streams came from paid subscriptions. in 2016, that number leapt to 76%. on the other side of the coin however, retailers and music makers are noticing a steady rise in the number of vinyls sold, marking a renaissance for the analog medium in a world otherwise dominated by the touch screen and the smart device. 

according to buzzangle, 76% of all music streams in 2016 were from paid subscriptions

designer brendan dawes — a keen fan of both mediums — has found a unique way to reconcile their differences, offering a novel combination of form and function. ‘I’m a big fan of digital music, especially spotify’, explains dawes. ‘the ability to dial-up a much loved song I’ve not heard for ages or discover new music are just some of the benefits I never tire of. yet the lack of physicality to this digital medium has always left me wanting. I still own vinyl and a turntable and I love the ritual of physically flicking through what to place on the platter and then wait for the needle to drop on the spinning vinyl.’

designer brendan dawes — a keen fan of both mediums — has found a unique way to reconcile their differences

the result is an idea dawes had been toying with for years, but until now hadn’t put into action: ‘the plastic player’. the player consists of two main components: a raspberry pi running PiMusicBox (connected to the designer’s 50 year old B&O stereo) and an arduino yun (an open source electronics platform) with an NFC shield (a short-distance radio technology that allows devices in close proximity to speak to each other). 

the player consists of two main components: a raspberry pi and an arduino yun

the ‘albums’ are created from a box of old slide mounts, each with tiny NFC stickers on the back to identify each album or playlist. when a slide is dropped into place, the arduino yun identifies the tag, matches it to a specific album, triggers a backlight, and then over wifi communicates with the PiMusicBox API to play the collection of songs. removing the album pauses that track and placing it back on the device resumes play. the buttons at the side control next, previous track and an additional stop track function. while happy with the outcome, dawes is more than open to improvements. ‘to be honest in my day to day to use I’ve found that these buttons mostly go unused so in future versions I’ll probably be removing them,’ he says. ‘I’ve found it’s really satisfying choosing what I want to listen to in this way; no need to fire up an interface to spotify — I just visually pick an album and place it on the device, much like placing vinyl on a turntable.’

the ‘albums’ are created from a box of old slide mounts

when a slide is dropped into place, the arduino yun identifies the tag and makes the good times roll

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: peter corboy | designboom