Seeking advise on setting up a file server for getting music to smartphones

[thereaderrabbit]

Situation:
1. I have a sizable mp3 collection that's too big to fit on my phone
2. I have a stereo in my workshop that I want to use to listen to my mp3 collection
3. I can hook up a smartphone to the stereo using a line-in connected to the headphone jack

Whats the best way to access the music?

I was thinking of upgrading my router with one that had a USB port I could connect to a sizable USB flash drive. Uploading my music to the flash drive. Then over the wireless network- mounting the flash drive on my smartphone. Then using WinAmp to play my music (as I like to do).

I'm not sure how easy all this is to do. Also not sure if switching between Android and iPhones would be problematic.

Any good advice? PS. My PC is a power hog, so I'd like to avoid using it for sharing files over the network.

 

[D.SKiLL]

Situation:
1. I have a sizable mp3 collection that's too big to fit on my phone
2. I have a stereo in my workshop that I want to use to listen to my mp3 collection
3. I can hook up a smartphone to the stereo using a line-in connected to the headphone jack

Whats the best way to access the music?

I was thinking of upgrading my router with one that had a USB port I could connect to a sizable USB flash drive. Uploading my music to the flash drive. Then over the wireless network- mounting the flash drive on my smartphone. Then using WinAmp to play my music (as I like to do).

I'm not sure how easy all this is to do. Also not sure if switching between Android and iPhones would be problematic.

Any good advice? PS. My PC is a power hog, so I'd like to avoid using it for sharing files over the network.

most Cisco/linksys routers have a media server ish type setting in them. so in theory yes you could do that. the issue would be with getting the music to the phone. idk if winamp for android supports streaming like that.

 

[Jeff7181]

Upload your music to Google Music and stream it to your phone that way.

 

[thereaderrabbit]

most Cisco/linksys routers have a media server ish type setting in them. so in theory yes you could do that. the issue would be with getting the music to the phone. idk if winamp for android supports streaming like that.

At this point I'm willing to be open minded on how this system will work. If I'm willing to dump WinAmp or the phone altogether... does anyone know any good solutions out there besides having a PC in my shop?

 

[thereaderrabbit]

At this point I'm thinking:

Router: ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router w/ 2 USB ports (FTPs, SAMBA, UPnP AV servers, and DLNA support)

Storage: Flash drive: SEgoN ”Power-X” of Power series 64GB USB 2.0 Flash disk

Music access: Android phone

 

[skyking]

I have a basic linux server running samba with all my tunes/files on it, and use ES file explorer on my droid to access the files.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop&hl=en
I don't have an Iphone to play with, but I bet you can get those hooked up via samba as well.

 

[jumpncrash]

I use ES file explorer on my android phone to stream my MP3s and movies, works great.

 

[thereaderrabbit]

JumpNCrash & SkyKing - thanks for the confirmation that this is workable.

Jeff7181 - I have a mixed impression of Google music thus far, but might try it again based on your recommendation.