5 Best Music Assistant Projects to Build with Home Assistant

Music Assistant turned my messy collection of speakers and streaming accounts into something that actually works together. If you haven't tried it yet, it's a free, open-source add-on for Home Assistant that pulls all your music sources (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, local files) into one library and lets you play them on a wide range of speakers in your house. But the real fun starts when you combine it with Home Assistant automations. Here are 5 projects that take Music Assistant from "nice music player" to "my house has a soundtrack."

1. Music That Follows You Room to Room

This is the one everyone wants first. You walk into the kitchen, and the music you were playing in the living room follows you there. Walk to the bedroom, it follows again.

Put a motion sensor in each room. When motion is detected in a new room and music is already playing, use the music_assistant.transfer_queue service to move the queue to the speaker in that room. Add a short delay so it doesn't ping-pong between rooms when you're just passing through a hallway.

Queue transfer is usually smooth; depending on the player/protocol it may briefly hiccup or restart the current track. Pair this with a condition that checks if anyone is still in the original room (so you don't steal the music from someone else), and it feels like magic.

2. Whole-House Party Mode with One Button

You're hosting friends and you want music everywhere, all in sync. Instead of opening five different apps, create a single dashboard button (or a physical smart button by the front door) that groups all your speakers together and starts a party playlist.

You can group mixed speaker types (Universal Groups), and many player types support sync — but perfect sync depends on the devices/protocols. Add crossfade where supported (Cast/DLNA may require Flow Mode). Another tap on the button ungroups everything and goes back to normal.

You can take it further by tying it to a "Party Mode" scene in Home Assistant that also dims the lights, changes the color temperature, and turns on the patio string lights.

3. Voice-Controlled DJ with AI

Music Assistant works with Home Assistant's voice assistant (Assist), and when you add an AI agent behind it, the requests can get a lot more natural. Instead of saying the exact name of a playlist, you can say things like "play something chill" or "put on upbeat 90s music" and the AI figures out what to queue up.

Set a default player in Music Assistant's voice settings so you don't have to specify the speaker every time. Turn on "Play Continuously" so the queue doesn't stop after your request runs out. Music Assistant's "Don't stop the music" feature will keep playing similar tracks from your library.

If you have multiple people in the house, set up dual wake words on your voice satellites. One wake word for the English pipeline, another for a second language. Each person can request music in their own language and it all goes through the same Music Assistant backend.

4. Mood-Based Automated Playlists

This one ties your music to what's happening in the house, not just what someone manually requests.

Morning routine: when the first motion sensor triggers between 6 and 9 AM, Music Assistant starts a mellow playlist at low volume in the kitchen. The volume gradually increases over 15 minutes as the sun comes up (use the sun integration for this).

Focus mode: when you activate a "Work" scene on your dashboard, a lo-fi or instrumental playlist starts on the office speaker at a volume that won't distract you. It pauses automatically when a phone call comes in (using the phone state sensor) and resumes when it ends.

Dinner time: a recurring automation at 6:30 PM starts a jazz or acoustic playlist on the dining room speaker. Pair it with an automation that dims the dining room lights to 40%.

Bedtime wind-down: 30 minutes before your scheduled bedtime, ambient or sleep music starts at very low volume and slowly fades to silence over 30 minutes using a volume automation with a gradual ramp.

The trick is keeping volumes sensible and using conditions so music doesn't start when nobody's home or when it's already playing something.

5. Kids' Jukebox with Physical Buttons

Build a simple jukebox for your kids using arcade buttons, an ESP32, and a speaker. Each button maps to a different playlist, audiobook, or podcast. Red button plays their favorite songs. Blue button plays a bedtime story. Green button plays a nature sounds playlist.

Wire the arcade buttons to the ESP32, flash ESPHome, and expose each button as a binary sensor in Home Assistant. Create automations that call Music Assistant's play media service when each button is pressed. Target the speaker in their room.

Music Assistant now has native podcast and audiobook support, so you can load up Audible audiobooks (Audible requires a paid subscription), podcast RSS feeds, or local audio files directly. The kids press a button and their story starts. If they press the same button again, it pauses. No screens, no apps, no "Dad, can you play my song?"

For extra fun, add an NFC reader to the setup. Stick NFC tags on book covers, toys, or cards. The kid places the object on the reader, and Music Assistant plays the matching audio. A teddy bear plays a lullaby. A dinosaur toy plays a nature documentary soundtrack. The NFC approach works great with Music Assistant because you can map each tag ID to a specific album, playlist, or track.

Music Assistant is one of those tools that quietly makes your house feel more alive. It handles the hard parts (synced playback, multiple providers, format differences) so you can focus on the creative stuff. If you've been using it just as a music player, try hooking it into your automations. That's where it really shines.

What's your favorite Music Assistant setup? Drop it in the comments.