Play my own playlist when I have Sirius XM with no CD player?

Instead of having a CD Player installed in my truck, I have Sirius XM radio. It has a port for a 3.5 mm jack,and a port for a USB-A plug. I want to play my own playlist of music through the stereo system via the Sirius XM radio.

I bobtailed to a Walmart today to buy an MP3 player, and I found out that Walmart does not carry MP3 players any more. The sales associate at Walmart said that MP3 players are obsolete. I asked the sales associate what do people use instead of MP3 players. The Sales Associate said that people use their cell phones.

I have a smart phone, but I am not all that tech savvy. I'm not one of these people whose life revolves around my cell phone. Is there any way I can set up my cell phone to play my own playlists of music through my Sirius XM radio. I do have a wire that has 3.5 mm plugs on both ends. What app would I need on my cellphone to do this?

 

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Trucking Electronics, Gadgets and Software Forum

 

You can find MP3 players on Amazon. Lots of them. Load it up and plug it in.
Walmart has USB drives that you can copy music files to, and that is what that USB-A plug is for.

You don't have to use your phone after all.

Of course, with any of the options, you need the music files available to copy to the device.

 

Dump SiriusXM and get the adapter for your model of phone > 3.5mm. That’ll allow you to download whatever music to your phone and/or subscribe to whatever music app you want.

I have Pandora (I have the subscription, so no commercials) and Spotify apps and use a 3.5mm adapter hooked to my I-Phone. Works perfect. I have a lifetime subscription to SiriusXM, but, never use it. So outdated.

 

If your phone doesn't have a 3.5mm audio jack, as many don't these days, you'll need an adapter.

If you don't already own a copy of the music in digital format, you'll need to use an app like Spotify to stream the music you want. You'll need a paid Spotify subscription for this. If you have an iPhone, Apple Music is also a good option.

If you own CDs of the music you want, there's a way to copy the music off the CD into digital files, but this requires a bit more technical ability.

 

You Bluetooth your phone to the radio.

Bluetooth is better then cable.

Put music on phone similar to mp3 player.

All my music is on my phone.
I use iheart app for my radio stations.

I've never used a cable.

 

If you have cell phone/smart phones, you just download a music app like Spotify or YouTube Music. Then you can Bluetooth to connect your phone to truck stereo or 3.5 mm jack if you want to use that. YouTube Music has free version with ads or you pay monthly fee like all Spotify or Apple Music no ads.

Today most people just pay the monthly fee and you can play/stream just about any song from cell phone to truck radio. They have about 2 million songs you can play. So they probably have ever song you want.

You can control most of them hands free just by talking or skip forward or backward if you truck has steering wheel buttons. I had Android phones and you can say Hey Google, play music or any song you want. It did not alway work. I just got iPhone to try. So far I am impressed. Because I can say Hey Siri and play any song I want and it’s working every time so far.


If you pay monthly for music subscription you can usually download songs to you cell phone and play them with streaming them using data, if you worried about data limits on cell phone play.

like other said you can use app like I hart and steam/play local radio stations also for free just using cell phone data.

 

Sirius XM also has app you can download and stream/play music on cell phone to truck radios if you ready paid for subscription but most music subscription are about $10 a month. Apple Music has voice control only one using Hey Siri I guess that how it work for $5 a month but you probably can download any song to cell phone. Lots of different options today for music vs when satellite radio first come out

 

You smartphone will probably be able to play MP3 files but you can get a Podcast app for your smartphone that will not only play MP3 files but go get MP3 files from the internet using your phone. There are many, many Podcast apps. A podcast is an audio file, often MP3 format. Each podcast app will have a search feature to go find podcasts or songs, or other things that you ask it to find. The podcast app will also have a player and allow you to build a playlist of songs. If your truck stereo with SiriusXM radio has a Bluetooth receiver built into it your truck stereo and your smartphone can play your music without using any cable. But, you can use what is called an Aux-to-Aux, or auxiliary input to auxiliary input cable to connect the headphone jack of your smartphone to the aux jack of your truck stereo or SirisuXM radio. Then you will hear the music on your phone playing on your truck stereo.

 

The one downside I found when playing audio from my phone over bluetooth to the truck stereo is sometimes the bluetooth audio is not as loud as when you use an auxiliary in cable. But bluetooth is a great way to play your own music in the truck.