I had been running into an issue where I was unable to connect to the Spotify Connect device using the Web API. I assumed that it was just a limitation of the spotifyd library, but today I was able to work out that my configuration file was being ignored and as such spotifyd was not authenticating. Manually pointing the service to my config file fixed the authentication and made the player available to the Spotify Web API. This enabled me to rewrite my scripts so that if the SubWOOFer speaker is connected via bluetooth to the Raspberry Pi, then it will play the Spotify output locally. If not, it will default to the currently connected device. And now the Raspberry Pi correctly scans for NFC tags and plays music via the speaker if a known tag is scanned!

Now that the software is almost finished, I need to start thinking about the hardware. First I'll need to hookup the arm of the record player to a makeshift GPIO switch so that I can play/pause the record when the arm is put into place. Then I'll need to make some holes in the plastic shell so that the power cable can go through. Lastly I'll need to put it all together and make some mini record art to put on the tiny plastic records that came with the kit. Should be fun!