Developer Modifies Fourth-Generation iPod to Stream Spotify

Many of us likely have fond memories scrolling the wheel of Apple’s iPods back in the day. At the time, it was a piece of cutting-edge technology that was able to play all our favourite music. Now, technology has advanced to the point where we’re no longer restricted to 20GB of memory to store our music as streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have taken over.

Though, for developer Guy Dupont, he took it upon himself to give the 2004 iPod Classic a bit of love to modernize it to the best of his ability. Via Gizmodo, Dupont modified the 17-year-old iPod so it could wirelessly stream Spotify. In reality, this meant that many of the internals of the fourth-generation iPod had to be removed. Leaving the case, and the click wheel, Dupont emptied the body in order to begin his work.

Rebuilding the device so it may access WiFi and connect to Spotify, Dupont installed a $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W that he was able to interact with using the click wheel. He replaced the display with a coloured LCD display. Additionally, haptic motors were installed as well as a 1000 mAh rechargeable battery. A Micro-USB port was installed for charging, ridding the device of Apple’s 30-pin connection.

Dupont then created his own Spotify interface fitting the iPod’s look and feel using Python. Dubbing it ‘sPot’, Dupont showed the device running. Unfortunately, the modifications meant that the audio jack no longer works. Instead, the device now hooks up to an external wireless speaker via Bluetooth.

All in all, Dupont says that the modifications cost him $100 and some know-how to complete. He has no intention of producing additional devices to sell. Instead, he shared details of the ‘sPot’ interface on Hackaday for those curious.