I would like to build a music player / device for an older person, not tech savvy user.
I have the MP3s on my linux desktop/laptop, but not all the metadata and cover art.
I’ve worked with RPi before, jailbreaking iPhones and roku. So I have some limited experience with small devices.
I’m wondering if I could obtain some kind of old/used android phone, remove all the apps so the home screen is completely empty, transfer via USB or ssh/scp the MP3 files (and metadata + cover art), then have some kind of music player app which would be the only app on the phone/device.
Then shutdown any wifi or internet connectivity, but still allow bluetooth to pair with an external speaker.
I think you’re over thinking this a lot. Why not buy a cheap MP3 player with Bluetooth? It’s bound to be infinitely more usable and stable for an older person. Physical buttons is king for the elderly.
Probably a bit hard to justify the price for this purpose, but there are a few really high end dedicated music players out there that run Android. I know Sony make one, and I believe some of the Fiio players run Android too.
bunch of not that high end dedicated music players when I looked on amazon just now - around the $40 - $70 price range