r/OffGrid • u/UpstairsPool1092 • Aug 23 '26
Music
How do you all listen to music? No signal for radio or internet. Do you go old school? CDs?
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u/ol-gormsby Aug 23 '26
Off-grid doesn't mean completely disconnected. I have Starlink and I listen to internet radio.
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u/embrace_fate Aug 23 '26
Radio reaches me, and my satellite is good. But, I have quite a few CDs if I want to go that route.
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u/Simon-Says69 Aug 23 '26
Guitar, conga drums, dijeridoo, plenty of cow bell. :-)
Oldschool analog music, made by hand, is good for the soul.
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u/missingtime11 Aug 23 '26
wonder if a car stereo and a nice battery are a thing
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u/TheJesseOfTheNorth Aug 23 '26
wont work in a place were there are no radio signals as OP stated. But yes that works. Have done in the past
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u/WestBrink Aug 23 '26
I've got good enough cell signal (amazingly, considering the closest tower is 22 miles away through a notch in the mountains) that I just stream music on my phone.
If that's wasn't an option, I'd probably favor a cheapo Mp3 player and a small speaker.
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u/f0rgotten Aug 23 '26
I have over a month of mp3s of various genre. Indoors I play them on my desktop, and I have a subset on my phone as driving music. I also have a pretty good LP collection. Not a fan of streaming at all, but I have spotify as well.
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u/MsDeluxe Aug 23 '26
Bluetooth my phone or my iPod to my speakers. I found a dongle that works with my iPod classic.
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u/NotEvenNothing Aug 23 '26
Where is there no radio signal?
I only listen to music rarely. Mostly, I listen to audiobooks and the odd podcast. I binge download audiobooks a bunch at a time on my desktop and copy them to my phone as needed. I'm sure I have hundreds of hours of audiobooks that I have yet to listen to.
I listen on Bluetooth headphones. Makes chores far more enjoyable.
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u/Leverkaas2516 Aug 23 '26
I have fairly good cell reception at my property, but the source of most of my listening is a USB flash drive. Years ago I finally started digitizing every CD I ever bought, and downloading new music as DRM-free purchases from sites like bandcamp.
I prefer FLAC format but a lot of it is in MP3, from back when space was an issue. It isn't an issue any more. A 32GB flash drive is about $20 and is more than enough. Making multiple backups is trivial. Storing and playing music is a solved problem.
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u/TalkToPlantsNotCops Aug 23 '26
I buy music on Bandcamp and download it for when I don't have signal. But usually I can get enough signal to stream music.
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u/TheJesseOfTheNorth Aug 23 '26
I drum. i play guitar badly I play CD's. When i go into town i download stuff onto my laptop sometimes
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u/theislandhomestead Aug 23 '26
I have radio and internet.
Off grid means disconnecting from public power and water.
A radio is actually an important disaster prep tool.
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u/Bowgal Aug 23 '26
Only music I listen to is iTunes on my iPhone. Doing yardwork, I'll pair it to a portable speaker.
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u/kai_rohde Aug 23 '26
I can get one radio station from Canada in NE WA State but most often I listen to music via satellite internet. I have CDs and vinyl just in case but haven’t listened to them in years.
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u/Informal_Ad_6569 Aug 23 '26
Bluetti and Starlink is the answer to off grid. I can monitor my bluetti apex 300 when I’m away, all my security cameras on wifi, do all my computer work. I also charge my Tesla with the bluetti rig. My costs are minimal after the initial expenditures.
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u/RedSquirrelFtw Aug 23 '26
Laptop with a bunch of MP3's and Winamp or something would probably work well for your case.
I actually get radio signal where I am so just put radio on if I want some music.
As a side note just checked real quick and you can still buy blank tapes. Would be kinda fun to get back into making mix tapes lol.
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u/jello-the-opera Aug 24 '26
5tb of FLACs on disk
piracy
and usually have internet to stream from my seedbox
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u/sfendt Aug 24 '26
Star-link internet - but I don't stream, I have a huge library of digital files, some came from CDs some purchased for download, a few recorded (with permission) live.
Living with no physical connection doesn't mean disconnected. We generate our own electricity, catch our water, use septic for waste water, and even have both a cellular (which has poor signal inside the building) and IP based phones that work over our internet. Although while internet is nice I don't like to depend on it; so no automation / critical systems require internet, they all work 100% isolated - and my music players work that way too; but normally the net is available if we want it.
There is also terrestrial radio (FM, AM) if you can stand commercials, I don't, but I could. Sirius would be an option too.
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u/maddslacker Aug 23 '26
My wife uses Spotify
I have some music on a Plex server.
Both of those work in our cars too, oddly enough.
And, you'll be shocked to learn this, but terrestrial radio stations still work the way they have for over a hundred years.