Transform Your Weekend: 3 Innovative Home Assistant Music Projects to Try (Aug 28-30)

For fans of Home Assistant and music, Music Assistant offers an exciting experience. This open-source music server allows users to stream music from various platforms through different speakers and audio systems, seamlessly integrating with Home Assistant. The development of Music Assistant is ongoing, introducing impressive features along the way.

Integrate Bluetooth Speakers with Music Assistant

Enjoy Music Assistant Anywhere

Music Assistant supports a variety of audio devices, enabling connections through numerous player providers. For example, I connect Sonos speakers via the Sonos provider, use AirPlay for compatible speakers, and even hook up an older Hi-Fi system using DLNA.

Additionally, options like Sendspin, Chromecast, Squeezelite, WiiM, Bluesound, and an experimental Amazon Echo provider are available. Any speaker linked to Home Assistant can also function as a player.

Although Music Assistant does not support direct Bluetooth streaming, you can use the Sendspin Bluetooth Bridge to achieve this. This software can be set up as a Home Assistant add-on or run on any Linux machine with Bluetooth capabilities. By configuring it, the Sendspin provider in Music Assistant allows Bluetooth devices to be recognized as separate players.

To use the Sendspin Bluetooth Bridge, ensure your Bluetooth speakers are within range of the device running the bridge software. If your Home Assistant server location is less than ideal, you can operate the bridge on a Raspberry Pi or another Linux-based device positioned closer to your speakers.

Utilize AirPlay and Spotify on Every Speaker in Your Home

Transform Speakers that Lack AirPlay Support

If your audio devices support AirPlay, you can directly stream music from Music Assistant to those devices using the AirPlay provider. However, many speakers may not support AirPlay.

Thanks to the AirPlay Receiver plugin in Music Assistant, you can enable any speaker to function as an AirPlay recipient. This allows streaming from AirPlay-compatible applications and devices as if they natively supported the protocol.

Moreover, this plugin lets any speaker in Music Assistant show up as an AirPlay target on your Apple devices, even if the speaker is not inherently AirPlay-capable. For instance, I can play music from the Apple Music app on my iPhone directly to my older Sonos Play:1 speaker without using the complicated Sonos app. Consequently, household members can easily use AirPlay from their devices to any Music Assistant speaker without needing guidance.

There’s also a Spotify Connect plugin that makes Music Assistant speakers available within Spotify’s device picker. Although both plugins are still being refined, they may exhibit some bugs.

Access Your Favorite Albums with a Simple Tap

Set Up a Personalized Album Artwork Dashboard

I rely on Music Assistant almost daily, and while it’s incredibly powerful, its user interface could be more polished. If you long for the days of browsing album artwork like you would have with the Cover Flow feature on an iPod, creating a dedicated dashboard for selecting albums may be a perfect solution.

The Music Assistant Cover Wall Card is a customizable Lovelace card available through HACS. It offers a dynamic grid layout of album art that can be displayed in various formats. Tapping on any album will play it instantly on the selected playback device.

You can choose to feature albums, artists, or playlists separately or in combination, with sorting options based on last played, most played, or recently added content. This setup allows you to select a single speaker or multiple speakers for coordinated playback across rooms.

You can even manually choose your top albums and pin their covers to the dashboard in any order you prefer. With this system, a single tap on an album you love will begin playback. For wall-mounted dashboards, it offers an efficient way to control music playback.

Home Assistant Provides an Outstanding Music Solution

The true advantage of Music Assistant lies in its design tailored for Home Assistant, which makes it rich in functionalities and actions. Users can take advantage of these features to create automations, such as adjusting lighting when a certain album is played or displaying artwork from the currently playing album.