I'm guilty of hoarding my old phones, and if you're a tech enthusiast like me, you probably do the same. In fact, I've got a stack of old iPhones sitting right on my deck waiting for me to find a use. The thing is, while the phone is perfectly usable, these phones have been sitting around for years for me to find the perfect use case. So, recently, I've been trying to figure out ways to use the hardware as a dashboard for things around my home. More specifically, as a music dashboard.

I listen to music all day long through Spotify and Plexamp. With an enormous library on hand, most of this listening is effectively in radio mode with me constantly switching over to the app to identify the track that's being played. The Spotify app on my computer and Spotify Connect on a streamer are my go-to. And anytime I want to identify what's currently playing, I invariably have to jump tabs or switch over to the app to figure out what I'm playing. Clearly, there has to be a better way to achieve that. So, I decided to repurpose the old iPhone into a permanent Spotify display that sits right next to my desk. It shows what's currently playing and updates automatically whenever the track changes. And I've set it up using a straightforward web-based service called Descent.live that makes the process simple enough to get started with in minutes. It's effectively turned my phone into a dedicated dashboard for all my music listening.

Pulling live track data from your music scrobbles

A minimal interface designed for a clean dashboard

The core of the setup is an extremely simple, lightweight website called descent.live. Instead of acting like a full-fledged music player, the website serves as a visual display for whatever is streaming to your Spotify account. But more importantly, unlike similar apps and services, it can even work with any other music service that can scrobble to Last.fm. The open-source project is easy enough to self-host if you want to go down that route, but I personally prefer to use the web-hosted service.

The service pulls live data from any public Last.fm account, and all you have to do is enter your username. You don't need to enter a password or manage authentication. The page then pulls information about the current track and presents it in a simple layout. You've got all the essentials in place, like album artwork, song titles, and artist names. Just as important, the display updates in almost real time so you're not left catching up with the music that's playing on your streaming app of choice.

Because the site relies on data from your Last.fm scrobbling, it works with a surprisingly wide range of music sources. Spotify can scrobble directly to last.fm and Plexamp supports it as well. So does Tidal. That means the dashboard reflects whatever music service I am currently using without needing separate integrations for each one. As long as the track appears on my Last.fm profile, the dashboard shows it automatically.

What I like about using descent.live is just how focused the interface is. There are basic menus for handling usernames and, if you want, artwork. You can also choose between displaying the last scrobbled track or the current track. Finally, you get an option to display the current weather and, if you want, in Celsius or Fahrenheit. It's all very straightforward. Even on the dashboard, the entire page is basically designed to show you the currently playing track as clearly as possible. Album artwork takes up most of the display, with the song title and artist name sitting prominently below it. That clarity is what makes it great as a dashboard.

Turning an old iPhone into an always-on music display

Use Guided Access to lock the iPhone into dashboard mode

With the initial step of getting a dashboard up and running, the next step is configuring my iPhone as an always-on dashboard. The easiest way to achieve that is to open the dashboard using Safari on your iPhone. Safari allows you to save any website as a shortcut that launches in full-screen mode by adding the website to your home screen as a shortcut. When opened this way, the page runs without the usual browser interface, which makes it feel more like a standalone web app instead of just another website.

The next problem was preventing the phone from accidentally leaving the screen. A stray swipe or notification could easily knock it out of the dashboard and defeat the whole purpose. For this, I resorted to a function built right into iOS. Guided Access mode lets you lock your iPhone into a single app. Once enabled, the device cannot exit that app unless you enter a passcode. I turned on Guided Access mode with the dashboard open, and the phone effectively became a kiosk that only shows the music display. Simple. With the setting switched on, the iPhone always opens the dashboard and stays there. I also disabled the auto-lock so that the screen stays on while the phone is connected to power. The device now sits on a charger next to me, and whenever a track starts playing, the screen automatically refreshes with the artwork and song information.

Give your old iPhone a second life as a music display

I started experimenting with the setup just to see if it would do the trick. Turns out, it's one of the most practical uses I've found for old hardware. It's turned an iPhone that was just sitting around into a useful tool. If a track catches my attention, I can see the album art and track details immediately, right there on my desk. If you have an older iPhone lying around, it's an easy project to take up that barely takes minutes to set up.