Asking for help - Please! How to play CD's in car with no CD player!

You have the CDs you want to copy music from and a laptop to copy them to. What you need to capture, catalog and transfer the music to a player of some kind is a music management application running on the laptop. There are a number of those but the most commonly used one is iTunes, there are versions for both Windows and Mac OS.

From there you would plug your player (Android or iPhone, tablet, dedicated mp3 player, etc.) into the laptop, transfer the music to it and plug it into the player in your car if it has a wired input or use Bluetooth to connect.

One big advantage for me of that kind of setup is that you're not limited to the content of individual CDs. Building playlists gives you tremendous flexibility. I have a 'roadtrip' playlist I've been building for years. It has over 1,200 songs, all chosen because they're good driving music. I can plug in my iPhone, put it on shuffle and play for a week without hearing the same song twice. If you're planning on driving fast, do a Tom Petty playlist, if it's a relaxed Sunday afternoon drive maybe the Bach French Suites.

I agree that you shouldn't use the physical CDs in your car. More important than the possibility of damage to the CDs is that handling CDs while you're driving is just not safe. I've done it but won't do it again.

The fidelity of MP3 files certainly isn't as high as CD files but in a car, that doesn't matter. With road noise and wind noise the difference won't matter.

If you don't want to use your phone for music playback while driving you could get an inexpensive tablet to hold the music and use its Bluetooth output to connect. You can get a refurbished iPad Mini from a4c.com for $130 and because of the larger screen have a much easier time navigating through your music while you're driving

 

Unless you have some really rare music or recordings you personally made at live events, just get a Spotify or Tidal account. So easy to rebuild your playlist on either of these platforms and you’re going to discover so much new music. Low monthly cost and you can try it for free for thirty days. You mentioned your vehicle has Bluetooth so it’s a no brainner and so easy. Once you try it you’ll never look back. 

Hello All,

Thanks for the advise so far.

Phone is a Google Pixel with 32 GB.  It is a Android set up.  (Not apple)

Pixel (Gen 1) does not contain a Micro or Mini SD slot.

Vehicle is a 2019 Kia Sportage SX.

Music was originally made via Amazon; download one at a time for 99 Cents a song. 
  
Time span over two computers.  I may have some of the music in this current computer.  The previous computer was destroyed by a noxious virus which ate the hard drive.

I've looked online for the obvious external CD player.  You can purchase one with ear buds.  I would like to play through the car stereo.

Wife likes the same music so no issue there.

I'm a little over half full on my phone memory storage right now.  I have 6 favorite CD's at ~one hour each.  Not sure the phone has enough memory left.

Any other suggestions is greatly appreciated.
Thanks....

As long as you are getting cell phone coverage you do not need to download the files onto your phone, so you can stream any song or playlist you build. You can obviously download them to your phone so if you don’t have phone coverage you still have your music but you have to have WiFi access so you have to plan a little ahead. It’s really simple to toggle between just streaming or download. You can get a family plan and share your playlist with whoever as long as they have a Spotify or Tidal account as well. Real simple and again you can play around for thirty days at no cost and can cancel at anytime so no locked in contract. 

I use both Spotiy and Tidal. Spotify I’ve had for several years and use it in the car and bike riding - pedal bike. I just downloaded Tidal for inhome use with a streamer. If I end up liking and knowing Tidal I’ll probably drop Spotify but we’ll see as I really like Spotify.

I haven’t tried this but I don’t see why you couldn’t get a small tablet if you want to download the music at home then use that in your car if you have storage problems. I’m betting you work or know some younger people who are all over Spotify and can help you out in person. It’s really easy.

It's true that you can use your cell phone coverage to listen to music but check whether your plan has unlimited data and what you'll pay for any time you might use over your monthly data allowance if you have one. Also, some carriers will reduce your download speed if you go over your monthly limit.